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Go ahead, have another piece. It really IS good for you. A major review of seven different studies, published in the British Medical Journal, has shown that eating chocolate is good for your heart – and not just on Valentine’s Day. This review looked at data from 114,000 participants and it is pretty much conclusive. Basically, looking at that pool of data, the best results showed that people who consumed the most chocolate carried a 37 percent lower risk of developing heart disease and were 29 percent less likely to suffer a stroke than those who ate the least. And overall it is clear that there is a benefit in fighting strokes to eating chocolate.
But the main researcher in interviews pointed out that this should absolutely not be taken as a blanket reason to just eat all the chocolate you want. The sugar and fat in chocolate is NOT good for you and eating lots more candy to get more chocolate would be a very bad idea.
The researchers believe that the benefits of chocolate probably come from chocolate’s high polyphenol content. These antioxidant compounds can boost the body’s production of nitric oxide, which in turn helps reduce blood pressure.
Since the review looked at a conglomeration of other studies, little can be deduced about relative differences like whether light chocolate is better or worse than dark and what amount is the most effective. Despite that, you can be pretty sure that the occasional piece of chocolate really is doing you some good.