Chocolate helps reduce blood pressure

New research suggests that eating a chunk of chocolate every day could treat high blood pressure.

Chocolate contains chemicals known as flavanols, which naturally open up blood vessels in the body – so blood flows more easily and the pressure drops.

"You don't always need medication to reduce blood pressure. This shows that there are some foods that can help," The Telegraph quoted Dr Karin Ried, at Adelaide University, as saying.

Dr Ried and her team found that for people with hypertension, eating chocolate could reduce the blood pressure by up to five per cent.

However, more research is required to find the optimal amount of chocolate that was needed to make the most difference.

The team’s results showed that chocolate helps drop blood pressure as much as 30 daily minutes of moderate physical activity such as brisk walking or swimming would.

However the health giving benefits have to be weighed against its contribution to obesity

The research was published in the journal BMC Medicine.

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