| (Health.com) -- Eating as little as a quarter of an ounce of chocolate each day -- an amount equal to about one small Easter egg -- may lower your risk of experiencing a heart attack or stroke, a new study has found. For best results, the chocolate should be dark, experts say.
"Dark chocolate exhibits the greatest effects, milk chocolate fewer, and white chocolate no effects," says the lead author of the study, Brian Buijsse, a nutritional epidemiologist at the German Institute of Human Nutrition, in Nuthetal, Germany. In the study, Buijsse and his colleagues followed nearly 20,000 people for an average of eight years. The researchers surveyed the study participants about their chocolate consumption (as well as the rest of their diet), and also tracked the heart attacks and strokes that occurred in the group. Compared with people who rarely ate chocolate (about one bar per month), the people who ate the most chocolate (slightly more than one bar per week) had a 27 percent and 48 percent reduced risk of heart attack and stroke, respectively, the researchers found. Health.com: How to make chocolate a healthy indulgence The heart benefits observed in the study may be due in part to lower blood pressure, the study notes. Previous studies have suggested that eating chocolate can lower blood pressure, and the researchers observed a similar -- though less pronounced -- association in this study. "The good news is that chocolate is not as bad as we used to think, and may even lower the risk of heart disease and stroke," says Buijsse. "The bad news, at least for some of us, is that the amounts that are needed to benefit from these effects appear to be quite low." In other words, these findings don't mean that you should stuff yourself with chocolate Easter eggs. Chocolate is high in calories, and, as with any such food, eating too much of it can swell your waistline and harm your health in other ways. Health.com: 8 rich desserts for 300 calories or less "This is only one small egg per day," says Buijsse. "Eating higher amounts will most likely result in weight gain. If people start eating small amounts of chocolate, it should replace something else, preferably other high-calorie sweets or snacks." The people in the study were part of a larger study on the effect of diet and lifestyle on cancer risk. For the current study, Buijsse and his colleagues excluded anyone with a history of heart disease or stroke, and also controlled for age, diet, lifestyle, and other factors. Still, they note that factors not recorded in the surveys -- rather than chocolate consumption alone -- could have been responsible for some or all of the health benefits they observed. The study had some other important limitations. Most notably, the researchers did not determine whether the study participants ate dark, milk, or white chocolate. Health.com: 10 best foods for your heart Using one of the surveys administered during the study, the researchers estimated that 57 percent of the participants ate milk chocolate, 24 percent ate dark chocolate, and 2 percent ate white chocolate. This data, however, came from a subset of just under 1,600 participants, so they are merely estimates that may not have been borne out in the full study population. Experts believe that natural compounds known as flavonoids (or flavonols), which appear to promote artery health and reduce inflammation, are responsible for the cardiovascular benefits that have been associated with chocolate consumption. Health.com: Food swaps that cut cholesterol, not taste Flavonols are found in cocoa, and dark chocolate contains more cocoa than milk chocolate does. "The benefits of chocolate come from flavonoids, and those are mainly found in dark chocolate, not Easter eggs, which are usually milk chocolate and have a lot of saturated fat," says Julia Zumpano, a registered clinical dietitian at the Cleveland Clinic, in Ohio. "I usually recommend less than one ounce of dark chocolate a day -- a tiny square -- for heart health," she adds. "The chocolate should be at least 70 percent cocoa with limited added sugar." Health.com: 20 meals that won't kill your cholesterol This study is merely the latest to point to the heart benefits of chocolate. In addition to lower blood pressure, cocoa consumption has been linked to improved blood vessel function, lower LDL (or bad cholesterol), and higher HDL (good cholesterol) in recent years. Despite their findings, Buijsse and his colleagues caution that more research, namely randomized trials on the heart benefits of chocolate, is needed. Buijsse admits to being conservative about his own chocolate consumption. "If I eat chocolate, which is not on a daily basis, I limit my intake to a small piece," he says. |
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| People who ate the most chocolate had a 27 percent and 48 percent reduced risk of heart attack and stroke. |
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| The following is the philosophy of Charles Schultz, the creator of the "Peanuts" comic strip. You don't have to actually answer the questions. Just read the e-mail straight through, and you'll get the point. 1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world. 2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners. 3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America. 4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize. 5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winner for best actor and actress. 6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners. ----------------------- How did you do? The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners. Here's another quiz. See how you do on this one: 1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school. 2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time. 3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile. 4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special. 5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with. The lesson: The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that care. "Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia." (Charles Schultz) |
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| Indian couple slain in 'honor killing' |
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| New Delhi, India (CNN) -- Asha Saini and Yogesh Kumar were in love and wanted to get married. But Saini's family did not approve of Kumar: As a taxi driver, they said, he did not have the right kind of job. But more importantly for them, he was from a lower caste.
Despite their objections, Saini, 19, kept seeing Kumar, 20. To keep them apart, her father and uncle tortured and killed the couple, police say. "We killed them because we were against their relationship. If someone comes to your house to meet your niece at midnight, what more do you do?" her uncle, Om Prakash, told reporters in televised remarks outside a police station in the Indian capital following his arrest. The victims were one of five sets of couples killed in one week in India in June. Some have dubbed the cases "honor killings" because the families feel they have to act against their children -- usually their daughters -- to save the family's reputation. Police say the family tried everything to discourage the relationship, including arranging Saini's engagement to another man. In the end, investigators say the family turned to violence. A neighbor who lives next door to the crime scene said he heard the terrible screams in the night -- and also got a glimpse of what was causing them. "Big, thick sticks were being used. The girl was screaming, kill me but leave him," said Umesh Kumar, who is not related to Yogesh. "They were beating her so much, the blood was like a fountain coming out of her head." Kumar said he tried to help but his phone wasn't working and none of the other neighbors would lend him a phone to call police. None of the others called the police themselves. "It isn't our business anyway. They should have obeyed the parent's wishes. That is just the way it is," said another neighbor, who did not want to be named. Authorities have charged Prakash and Saini's father, Suraj Kumar Saini, with murder. Neither has entered a plea, and court cases are pending. "The most disturbing part of this case is that the girl and the boy were killed by the relative of the girl," said Delhi Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest District) Narendra Bundela. In some villages, families can be ostracized if they cannot make their children obey local marital tradition. But the killings have emerged in big cities, like New Delhi, and are making headlines in the national press. It is not clear if there has been an increase in these types of killings or a rise in reporting of them. India's Supreme Court is pressing the northern states where these killings are more frequent to take action and to specify what they are doing to curb the problem. The Indian Cabinet met Thursday to discuss stricter punishment for those involved in "honor killings." A panel of ministers will now consider changes to criminal law that would make groups that order these killings liable for murder charges. The changes would attempt to rein in traditional village councils that sometimes hold summary trials and order punishment in cases of inter-caste marriages. Dr. Ranjana Kumari, who heads the Center for Social Research in Delhi, said the cases were extreme examples of the clash of modern India versus the strict interpretation of ancient traditions. The honor of a family traditionally resides in its daughters, and when the girl goes against their wishes, it is seen as the ultimate disrespect, Kumari said. "Here the subordination for a girl is, even now, by and large almost total. What you wear, what you study, where you live, who you marry, everything has to be decided by the family," she said. Renu, Kumar's 27-year-old sister, said he was her closest living relative since their parents died a few years ago. "I lost everything. I am left alone," she said, as tears welled up in her eyes. "This pain will last a lifetime. Still I want justice. What has happened to my brother should happen to the killers also. They should hang." |
