Dark chocolate reduces blood pressure

Now-a-days, life has become so hectic such that we end up stressed out at the end of the day. People are prone to a lot of stress due to their nature of job, life-style, pollution, and eating habits. Of course, urbanization has its own stress-inducing role. Prolonged exposure of stress can cause serious health-related problems. One of the major health issues of stress is heart-related disorders, particularly hypertension and plaque formation. High time we should find ourselves some ways to reduce stress. Of course, a healthy diet and exercise are must. Apart from these, I recommend you guys to eat a small bar of dark chocolate, 2–3 times a week. Research has shown that dark chocolate has a potential to reduce your blood pressure (BP), thereby making your arteries flexible and dilated.

Dark chocolate or cocoa contains large amounts of the antioxidants polyphenols. You can find these compounds even in vegetables and fruits like oranges. Also, a subclass of polyphenols called flavnols (also found in tea and red wine) is found in dark chocolate and cocoa. Flavnols have the capacity to flush out free radicals, which are really bad guys that can hurt your blood vessels and heart. The free radicals are unstable molecules that react with the cell membrane, causing the cell to rupture and die (apoptosis). It has also been found that free radicals can stimulate the bad cholesterol (LDL and VLDL) to deposit in the walls of the arteries, leading to clogged arteries. This can finally lead to atherosclerosis, arterial injury. The antioxidants in the dark chocolate are found to stop this process of artery clogging.

A high intake of cocoa in diet could be a reason for reducing blood pressure can be concluded from a study on Kuna Indians of San Bans Islands. The study showed that Kuna Indians do not tend to develop heart disease or high BP even they grow older, because their diet comprises of drinking about 5 to 6 cups of a cocoa-based beverage every day.

A recent research has also shown that flavanols in chocolate tend to promote the nitric oxide production. Nitric oxide is a gas that promotes the relaxation and widening of artery walls, thereby allowing easy flow of blood and decrease in BP.

Longevity and reduction in cardiovascular risk are associated with the maintenance of low BP, and this can be achieved by consuming cocoa- and chocolate-based products. A small bar of dark chocolate everyday can do wonders to your heart. People that have sweet tooth can satisfy their sweet craving by preferring dark chocolate rather than other oil-based and high glucose-based high-calorie sweets.