Chocolate can be good for you: EU regulator

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has ruled that cocoa powder and dark chocolate can help people improve blood circulation - a claim made by Barry Callebaut, the world's largest maker of chocolate products.

The Swiss group, which supplies food companies such as Nestle and Hershey with cocoa and chocolate products, said on Tuesday it had provided evidence to EFSA that eating 10 grammes of dark chocolate or its equivalent in cocoa that were high in flavanols helped blood flow.

If the European Commission signs off on the EFSA ruling, the company and its customers would have the right to use the health claim on packaging for products such as chocolate drinks, cereal bars and biscuits, the company said.

"As the first company receiving such a health claim, we see new market potential both for us and for our customers," Chief Executive Juergen Steinemann said in a statement.

For the clinical studies it conducted to back up the claim, Barry Callebaut said it used a special process to make cocoa products that maintains the flavanols, which are usually mostly destroyed during conventional chocolate-making.

In an opinion posted on the EFSA website, a scientific panel concluded that a cause and effect relationship had been established between the consumption of cocoa flavanols and the maintenance of normal vasodilation, which aids blood flow.

Chocolate Decreases Stroke Risk A new study published this week in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology concludes that women who wolfed down the most chocolate were significantly less likely to suffer a stroke than their peers who abstained from the delectable dark stuff.

The benefit is almost certainly due to the powerful antioxidant polyphenol compounds found in high-quality chocolate, especially chocolate with a high cocoa content. Previous studies have shown that chocolate consumption is linked to lower blood pressure, better cholesterol profiles, better blood vessel health, reduced and a reduction in insulin resistance. The latter is a condition that often precedes, or accompanies, the onset of type 2 diabetes. Previous studies have also shown that eating chocolate helps reduce the “stickiness” of blood platelets, which may help explain the reduced incidence of strokes documented in the present study.

Platelets are blood components that act to form clots, which help stop blood loss in the case of a wound. But when clots occur spontaneously in the blood vessels, in the absence of injury, they may travel to the brain, where they may cause a blockage in one of the small vessels supplying blood, oxygen and nutrients to the brain. When that happens, the affected tissue quickly dies, resulting in a stroke. Such clots are more likely when platelets become too "sticky".

The present study examined the links between chocolate consumption and stroke in a large population of Swedish women, whose health status was followed for about a decade. Researchers found a clear link between higher consumption of chocolate and a lower incidence of stroke. While protection appeared to increase along with consumption, only women with the highest intakes of the delicious treat enjoyed statistically significant decreases in the incidence of stroke.