Dark Chocolate "as Good as Exercise" for High Blood Pressure

Looking for yet another excuse to eat chocolate? A new study has been widely touted as revealing dark chocolate to be "as good for your heart as 30 minutes of exercise".

But behind the headlines, what's the truth?

Well, it's definitely not time to go and stock up on giant bars of the dark stuff.

The research only applies to patients who already have high blood pressure. And, despite finding that dark chocolate "significantly" lowered blood pressure for these patients, the scientists didn't recommend it as a dietary supplement.

The research was carried out by Dr. Karin Ried and colleagues from the the University of Adelaide. It was published in BMC Medicine as Does chocolate reduce blood pressure? A meta-analysis, combining data from several studies.

As the researchers admitted, despite the positive results (owing to the flanavols found in dark chocolate), other properties of chocolate mean that it's not a great alternative to medication:

While regular consumption of flavanol-rich cocoa products may have a beneficial short-term effect in reducing blood pressure in hypertensive individuals, the practicability of chocolate or cocoa drinks as long-term treatment is questionable.

They also found that the effect was confined to dark chocolate: milk and white chocolate didn't help.

Mike Rich, the Executive Director of the Blood Pressure Association, was quoted in the Daily Telegraph saying that the results were "interesting" but emphasizing that:

More research is needed to see if this is anything more than a short-term effect. Of course, there's nothing wrong with the occasional sweet treat, but eating too much chocolate may cause weight gain, which in turn raises blood pressure, so we wouldn't recommend people rush out to get giant bars of dark chocolate just yet.

If you do have high blood pressure, healthier ways of lowering it include:

* Reducing your salt and sodium intake
* Drinking less alcohol and quitting smoking, if you smoke
* Getting regular exercise
* Eating a healthy diet.

These may not have the same appeal as munching on a bar of dark chocolate - but they do work.