Sometimes, cheating pays.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore were conducting a trial to examine aspirin's effects on blood platelets. They recruited participants and asked them follow a strict exercise regimen, stop smoking and avoid certain foods and drinks that are know to have an effect on blood clotting: things like coffee, tea, other caffeinated drinks - and chocolate.
But apparently, 139 participants just couldn't control themselves - they had to have their chocolate. They snuck it for awhile, but eventually their consciences got the better of them and they confessed to trial administrators.
The administrators disqualified them from the aspirin trial. But they also decided to use the cheaters to conduct a "spin-off" study to assess the effects of chocolate on blood platelets.
We already knew that dark chocolate contains flavanoids, antioxidants that can protect tissues, including the heart, from damage. And some previous studies had specifically shown that dark chocolate can reduce blood clotting - but the quantities used in those studies made real-life translations unrealistic.
Well, the Hopkins data set was about as real-life as you could get - people just doing what they do, without intervention. And guess what? The results were still compelling.
They found that the chocoholics' blood clotted more slowly than controls - an average of 7 seconds more slowly. Urine testing revealed that the chocolate eaters secreted significantly less of the byproducts of platelet activity, demonstrating reduced platelet activation and clumping in the body. And effects were seen for as long as 12 hours - far longer than the three to four hour window reported in previous studies.
I've told you before about chocolate's other health benefits: this yummy sweet is full of antioxidants, can help improve insulin utilization and even regulate serotonin, the feel-good brain chemical.
But before you snarf down that Snickers bar and call it health food, let's talk. Most commercial chocolate is milk chocolate, which doesn't offer much in the way of flavanoids. And whatever flavanoids they have are cancelled out by tons of sugar and fat - not a recipe for heart health.
To have your chocolate and eat it too, you need to choose high-quality dark chocolate. Green and Black, Dagoba, Rapunzel, Scharffen-Berger and Dove all offer delicious high quality dark chocolate bars. I've also told my readers about cocoa nibs - pieces of roasted cocoa beans - which are another great source of flavanoids, and important minerals like magnesium, zinc, iron and potassium. (You can find them in gourmet stores and on the Internet; I particularly like the Scharffen-Berger brand.) Either of these makes a good snack that can satisfy your cravings while boosting heart health. Just don't go overboard - each ounce of dark chocolate still contains about 200 calories, so it's important to limit portion sizes.
And if you have existing heart problems, talk to your doctor - dark chocolate may not give you enough blood thinning benefits to meet your needs, and eating it regularly in addition to blood thinning medications may be too much of a good thing. But for the rest of us, a daily dark chocolate snack may be a welcome alternative to choking down a chalky pill.
