Moderate Chocolate Consumption Linked to Lower Risks
of Heart Failure for Senior Women
Chocolate eating older women have less heart
failure but experts warn of excess calories, fat
Aug. 18, 2010 – Middle-aged and elderly Swedish
women who regularly ate a small amount of chocolate had lower risks of
heart failure risks, in a study reported in Circulation: Heart
Failure, a journal of the American Heart Association.
The nine-year study, conducted among 31,823
middle-aged and elderly Swedish women, looked at the relationship of the
amount of high-quality chocolate the women ate, compared to their risk
for heart failure. The quality of chocolate consumed by the women had a
higher density cocoa content somewhat like dark chocolate by American
standards.
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● Women who ate an average of one to two
servings of the high-quality chocolate per week had a 32 percent lower
risk of developing heart failure.
● Those who had one to three servings per month
had a 26 percent lower risk.
● Those who consumed at least one serving daily
or more didn’t appear to benefit from a protective effect against heart
failure.
The lack of a protective effect among women eating
chocolate every day is probably due to the additional calories gained
from eating chocolate instead of more nutritious foods, said Murrray
Mittleman, M.D., Dr.P.H., lead researcher of the study.
“You can’t ignore that chocolate is a relatively
calorie-dense food and large amounts of habitual consumption is going to
raise your risks for weight gain,” said Mittleman, director of the
Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Unit at Harvard Medical School’s
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
“But if you’re going to have a treat, dark
chocolate is probably a good choice, as long as it’s in moderation.”
High concentration of compounds called “flavonoids”
in chocolate may lower blood pressure, among other benefits, according
to mostly short-term studies. However, this is the first study to show
long-term outcomes related specifically to heart failure, which can
result from ongoing untreated high blood pressure.
In the observational study, researchers analyzed
self-reported food-frequency questionnaire responses from participants
48-to-83-years-old in the Swedish Mammography Cohort. Combining the
results with data from national Swedish hospitalization and death
registries between 1998 through 2006, the researchers used multiple
forms of statistical modeling to reach their conclusions on heart
failure and chocolate consumption.
Mittleman said differences in chocolate quality
affect the study’s implications for Americans. Higher cocoa content is
associated with greater heart benefits. In Sweden, even milk chocolate
has a higher cocoa concentration than dark chocolate sold in the United
States.
Although 90 percent of all chocolate eaten across
Sweden during the study period was milk chocolate, it contained about 30
percent cocoa solids. U.S. standards only require 15 percent cocoa
solids to qualify as dark chocolate. So, by comparison, American
chocolate may have fewer heart benefits and more calories and fat per
equivalent amounts of cocoa content compared to the chocolate eaten by
the Swedish women in the study.
Also, the average serving size for Swedish women in
the study ranged from 19 grams among those 62 and older, to 30 grams
among those 61 and younger. In contrast, the standard American portion
size is 20 grams.
“Those tempted to use these data as their rationale
for eating large amounts of chocolate or engaging in more frequent
chocolate consumption are not interpreting this study appropriately,”
said Linda Van Horn, Ph.D., R.D., immediate past chair of the American
Heart Association Nutrition Committee and professor in the Department of
Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of
Medicine in Chicago. “This is not an ‘eat all you want’ take-home
message, rather it’s that eating a little dark chocolate can be
healthful, as long as other adverse behaviors do not occur, such as
weight gain or excessive intake of non-nutrient dense ‘empty’ calories.”
Heart failure occurs among about 1 percent of
Americans over age 65. A condition in which the heart can’t pump enough
blood to the rest of the body, heart failure rates are increasing as our
aging population grows.
“Anything that helps to decrease heart failure is
an important issue worth examining,” Mittleman said.
Co-authors are Elizabeth Mostofsky, M.P.H.; Emily
Levitan, Sc.D.; and Alicja Wolk, Dr.Med.Sci. Author disclosures and
funding support are on the manuscript.
>> The American Heart Association puts chocolate
consumption into perspective, read about it
here.
Keep up with the latest news for senior citizens, baby
boomers
Aug. 18, 2010 – Middle-aged and elderly Swedish
women who regularly ate a small amount of chocolate had lower risks of
heart failure risks, in a study reported in Circulation: Heart
Failure, a journal of the American Heart Association.