Dark Chocolate and Weight Loss
Speaking of blood pressure, the recent studies tend to support the notion that dark chocolate has no beneficial effects on vascular function in healthy people (Heuten, Van Ackeren, Hoymans, Wouters, Goovaerts, Conraads, & Vrints, 2015, p.72). According to the experiment described by Heuten et al. (2015), healthy male and female volunteers in the age range of thirty-five to sixty-five years old who did not have any pernicious habits, any problems with blood pressure, and any history of diabetes or cardiovascular disease were divided into two groups: the first one was assigned with twenty grams of high-flavanol dark chocolate every day; the second one was assigned with the same amount of low-flavanol dark chocolate every day (p.72). The results demonstrated a decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressure in both groups by the end of the study but no signs of beneficial improvement indicated by the blood pressure and vascular function final index in any of the subjects. Needless to say that this research was conducted the same year the Chocolate Diet hoax paper was published.
There would not have been such a mix-up in factual evidence, however, if some of it had not indicated that chocolate might actually be used as a heart disease preventer in certain doses. Another study conducted by Grassi, Desideri, Necozione, di Giosia, Barnabei, Allegaert, Bernaert, & Ferri (2015) featured twenty volunteers with no pernicious habits, blood pressure problems, diabetes or cardiovascular disease who were assigned to receive ten grams of cocoa a day for five weeks (p.294). The results showed that cocoa intake decreased office blood pressure and night-time pulse pressure; however, to achieve these figures, the calorie intake by the volunteers should have been lowered significantly. Nevertheless, the scientists claimed that cocoa-containing products “might be reasonably incorporated into a dietary approach” (Grassi et al., 2015, p.301). However, the fact that cocoa may only be useful provided that there are no other glucose-containing or high-calorie foods in the patient’s diet to break the healthy balance does not make this approach look obsolete and accurate as a means of cardiovascular prevention. Yet again, the study concentrated on the positive effects of cocoa flavonoids in general and not dark chocolate in particular.
If there is a statement that dark chocolate is effective in dealing with heart problems and is preferable for people who are at risk of fatal heart failure, it is rather false than true. The commercials and the advertisements make the idea of a harmless chocolate diet look good on a TV-screen or on a glossy magazine page, but one should learn to detect what is meant to look good in order to be sold and what is actually good. Chocolate-producing enterprises will benefit from the hype around the useful properties of chocolate, so, naturally, they would support any idea that turns chocolate into the unlikely medicine for any popular health problem such as excessive weight or increased blood pressure. Dark chocolate is an especially convenient tool …
