High Blood Pressure: Dark chocolate can ward off hypertension

05 July 2007

We all know that fresh vegetables and fruit are good for us, but so is a little dark chocolate.  Even just one square a day can reduce blood pressure, researchers have discovered.

They did the chocolate test on 44 people aged between 56 and 73 years who had the first signs of high blood pressure (hypertension).  Half were given 6.3g of dark chocolate, containing 30 mg of polyphenols, every day for 18 weeks while the rest were given polyphenol-free white chocolate.

The dark chocolate group saw a fall in the prevalence of hypertension from 86 per cent to 68 per cent, and systolic BP fell by 2.9 and diastolic BP by 1.9.  There was no improvement in the white chocolate group.