As you may know, I eat a very healthy diet. But I do have indulgences. And one of my biggest is dark chocolate. I have some a few times per week. If you are a chocolate lover as well, you probably know that our mutual passion might not be so unhealthy. It has some wonderful plant chemicals that can protect your body. Now theres more information on how beneficial this treat really is.
A recent study showed that dark chocolate bars enriched with plant sterols can reduce cholesterol and blood pressure. These bars contained 180 mg of cocoa (chocolate flavanols) per bar and they had extra plant sterols (1.1 gm per bar).
The participants ate two bars (with plant sterols) per day for four weeks. Their total cholesterol fell by 2%. Their LDL cholesterol fell by 5.3%. Then they ate two bars daily that did not have the sterols. After another four weeks their blood pressure came down by 5.8 points.
Dark chocolate has lots of wonderful protective chemicals that come from the cocoa bean. Plant sterols are molecules that look like cholesterol, but have no adverse effects. They lower cholesterol, probably by competing with it. They are so effective that Ive redesigned Advanced Cholesterol Formula to contain these wonderful compounds.
So if you have high cholesterol and must have your chocolate, make it dark chocolate and add a capsule of ACF twice daily. Have your cholesterol rechecked in eight weeks. Ill bet you can lower it and your blood pressure while indulging yourself. Please make sure that the chocolate is organic and/or free trade with a cacao content of greater than 60%.
Ref: Allen, R.R., L. Carson, et al. Daily consumption of a dark chocolate containing flavanols and added sterol esters affects cardiovascular risk factors in a normotensive population with elevated cholesterol, J Nutr, 2008; 138(4): 725-31.