Cocoa Linked to Lower Risk of Disease

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Cocoa Linked to Lower Risk of Disease
Science Image: cocoa, chocolate

The Dutch have a long history with chocolate. Although
native Mexicans and their Spanish conquerors first
used the bitter bean--and reported on its tonic
powers--a Dutchman was the first to extract modern
cocoa and neutralize its bitterness with alkali. The
modern chocolate bar was born. Now, results from a
study of aging Dutch men have shown that cocoa
consumers were half as likely to die from disease than
those who did not eat the sweet treat.

Brian Buijsse of the National Institute for Public
Health and the Environment in Bilthoven and his
colleagues measured the cocoa intake of 470 men
between 1985 and 2000 as part of the Zutphen Elderly
Study, a longitudinal look at nearly 1,000 Dutch men
between 65 and 84 years of age. The nutrition experts
identified 24 cocoa-containing foods that the elderly
men ate, ranging from dark chocolate bars to chocolate
spreads. They summed the total amount of cocoa each
consumed and came up with a grams-per-day measurement,
which they used to separate the men into three groups:
those who ate little chocolate, a modest amount, and
the most.

Among those who ate the most chocolate--averaging more
than four grams a day--average systolic and diastolic
blood pressure was 3.7 and 2.1 millimeters of mercury
lower than their chocolate-spurning peers. This result
did not hold true for other sweet foods nor did it
vary among men who also smoked, were inactive or
consumed a lot of alcohol. And, despite being strongly
associated with greater intake of calories, chocolate
lowered the overall risk of cardiovascular or any
other disease by as much as 50 percent.

Although the chocolate definitely decreased blood
pressure and prolonged life, the two were not
statistically related, according to the researchers.
This means that the exact mechanism by which chocolate
helps remains a mystery. "Our findings, therefore,
suggest that the lower cardiovascular mortality risk
related with cocoa intake is mediated by mechanisms
other than lowering blood pressure," the authors write
in their report, published yesterday in the Archives
of Internal Medicine. "Because cocoa is a rich source
of antioxidants, it may also be related to other
diseases that are linked to oxidative stress (e.g.
pulmonary diseases, including chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease and certain types of cancer)."
--David Biello
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