Chocolate can be good for the heart, finds study

IT IS research which could have been written by the Easter Bunny himself – eating chocolate is good for you.

As children across the country prepare to feast on chocolate eggs, a study has suggested that the sugary treat could be good for your heart.

But before we all get too carried away, there are a few conditions you may wish to consider. To get the maximum benefit from your chocolate, it really needs to be dark – and in very small quantities.

Experts warned that the study, published in the European Heart Journal, was not a green light to gorge ourselves this Easter.

Researchers in Germany followed 19,357 people aged between 35 and 65 for at least a decade, totting up their chocolate-eating habits.

They discovered that eating just one square of chocolate a day could cut the risk of heart attack and stroke by 39 per cent.

Eating 7.5g of chocolate daily also led to lower blood pressure, the study suggested.

The team from the German Institute of Human Nutrition found those who ate the most amount of chocolate – an average of 7.5g a day – had lower chances of heart attacks and stroke than those who ate the least amount (1.7g a day on average).

But the difference between the two groups amounted to 6g of chocolate – less than one square of a 100g bar.

The study concluded that if those people who ate the least chocolate increased their intake by 6g a day, there would be fewer heart attacks and strokes.

Those who ate the most chocolate had a 27 per cent reduced risk of heart attacks and nearly half (48 per cent) the risk of strokes compared with those eating the least amount.

Victoria Taylor, senior heart health dietician at the British Heart Foundation, said: "It's important to read the small print with this study."