Chocolate on blood pressure

Small amounts of dark chocolate "efficiently reduced blood pressure," report the researchers, who included Dirk Taubert, MD, PhD, of Germany's University Hospital of Cologne.

Taubert's study included 44 adults aged 56-73 in Duisburg, Germany.

The 24 women and 20 men had mild hypertension or borderline blood pressure that fell just short of hypertension. These people were otherwise healthy and were not taking blood pressure drugs or nutritional supplements.

Taubert's team of researchers split participants into two similar groups.

One group got 30-calorie daily doses of dark chocolate for 18 weeks. The researchers checked the amount of cocoa in the German chocolate bars.

For comparison, the other group got a similar daily dose of "white chocolate," which doesn't contain chocolate liquor or cocoa.

Both groups got the same instructions: Take your chocolate dose two hours after dinner, don't change your normal diet and fitness habits, and keep a diet and exercise diary.

By the end of the study, those eating dark chocolate lowered their systolic blood pressure by nearly three points and their diastolic blood pressure by almost two points, on average.

Systolic blood pressure is the first, or top, number in a blood pressure reading. Diastolic blood pressure is the second, or bottom, number in a blood pressure reading.

Blood pressure didn't budge for better or worse in the white chocolate group.