By Eric Brand

The British Medical Journal recently published a study that consisted of a systematic review and meta-analysis of research on chocolate and cardiovascular health.  The link is here. 

Chocolate is an ancient herbal product that originated in the New World.  Chocolate was used ritually in ancient Mexico as a bitter, often spiced beverage and it was sometimes consumed in huge quantities.  Chocolate entered China in a big way only recently, and dark chocolate is only just now catching on there.  According to the text Zhong Yi Shi Liao Yin Yang Xue (Chinese Medical Dietary Therapy and Nutrition), cocoa is regarded in TCM as a sweet, balanced medicinal that enters the heart channel. It arouses the spirit, relieves thirst, and disinhibits urination.  (I’m a bit skeptical of the classification of sweet instead of bitter, personally.) 

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From the medical perspective, chocolate is intriguing because it appears to possess a number of positive effects and is rich in antioxidants.  Chocolate is also intriguing because it has attracted a complex niche in human culture worldwide.  People swear by the pleasure of chocolate and become seemingly addicted to it, yet despite the fact that it contains trace chemicals related to a stunning number of drug families and neurotransmitters, it lacks sufficient quantities of any one class of chemicals to account for humankind’s fascination and apparent addiction.

According to the article, the authors culled seven studies that met their inclusion criteria, for a total of 114,009 participants.   The results state: “Five of the seven studies reported a beneficial association between higher levels of chocolate consumption and the risk of cardiometabolic disorders. The highest levels of chocolate consumption were associated with a 37% reduction in cardiovascular disease (relative risk 0.63 (95% confidence interval 0.44 to 0.90)) and a 29% reduction in stroke compared with the lowest levels.”