Eating dark chocolate, instead of milk chocolate, has been recommended by health experts for quite some time now. Its reputation, health-wise, is not news anymore.

According to the Journal of the American Heart Association, patients suffering from PAD (peripheral artery disease) can reap major benefits from eating chocolate. Apparently, chocolate can improve vascular health by increasing blood flow.

PAD affects 20% of adults in America who are older than 70, and such a disease causes difficulties in walking and exercising as there is impairment in the blood flow, cramping included.

A study was done to patients who were diagnosed with PAD, and 20 participants were asked to consume 40 grams of dark chocolate which contained at least 85% cocoa, while the rest were given 40 grams of milk chocolate which contained less than 30% cocoa.

The main goal of this experiment was to gauge whether the patient’s ability to walk on a treadmill without assistance would be improved. It turns out that dark chocolate consumption helped participants walk a little bit farther, about 40 extra feet.

Enhanced blood flow among patients who were given the dark chocolate was observed. No effects were seen in those who ate milk chocolate, though. So, how did it come to be?

The researchers claim that the polyphenols abundant in dark chocolate could aid in the reduction of oxidative stress and help the body form more nitric oxide, a substance know to bring about blood vessel dilation.

There’s another thing that yields the same results: meditation. You read right. Practices such as meditation can have the same nitric oxide-producing effect in the body.

When blood vessels open up, then tendency is the blood pressure goes down. That said, the effects are not exclusive for PAD patients.

To put everything in context, the experiment aims at highlighting the potential outcome of antioxidant treatment. However, the study is a bit premature. There is a lot yet to be discovered.

At what point do we all accept that dark chocolate is indeed the superfood of the millennium?

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Joanna Maligaya

Staff Writer/Content Developer at Chocolate University Online

Ever since she can remember, Joanna has always considered chocolate as the ultimate food for her soul. She believes in the saying, “9 out of 10 people love chocolate, and the 10th always lies.”

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