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WASHINGTON: The results of a University of Illinois study have
demonstrated that eating chocolate bars can effectively lower
cholesterol levels.
“Eating two dark chocolate bars a day not only
lowered cholesterol, it had the unexpected effect of also lowering
systolic blood pressure,” said John Erdman, a University of
Illinois professor of food science and human nutrition, in a
prepared statement released Monday by the university.
Erdman attributes the drop in cholesterol
numbers (total cholesterol by 2 percent and LDL or “bad”
cholesterol by 5.3 percent) to the plant sterols that have been
added to the bar and the drop in blood pressure to the flavonols
found in dark chocolate.
Forty-nine persons with slightly elevated
cholesterol and normal blood pressure were recruited for the study.
They were divided into two matched groups. Two types of bars were
then introduced, one with plant sterols and one without.
Blood cholesterol levels, blood pressure, body
weight, and other cardiovascular measures were tracked throughout
the eight-week study.
“We saw a marked differential effect on blood
cholesterol, with the sterol-containing products doing better than
those without sterols,” write the authors.
The study was published in April’s Journal of
Nutrition.
-- Xinhua
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