Dark chocolate ‘good for the heart’

Dark chocolate can reduce women's risk of heart failure (HF), a recent study has shown.

Researchers from the US, Sweden and Israel studied 31,823 women aged between 48 and 83 who did not have diabetes or a history of HF.

Their aim was to investigate the association between chocolate intake and the incidence of HF.

Over the nine years of the study, 419 women were hospitalised for incident HF or died of it.

"In this population, moderate habitual chocolate intake was associated with a lower rate of HF hospitalisation or death but the protective association was not observed with intake of one or more servings per day," the study's authors concluded.

Back in May, Amanda Ursell wrote in the Times that, as dark chocolate is harder, more dense and takes more time to digest than milk chocolate, it stays in the stomach for longer, helping people to feel satisfied for longer.

Do you need to moderate your chocolate intake?