Is chocolate good for your heart? Finally the FDA has an answer – kind of
For years, chocolate-lovers have pointed to studies suggesting compounds in cocoa may be good for heart health. But some of the recent evidence comes from flavanol-rich cocoa, not from candy bars
There's plenty of mystique tied to chocolate. Over the centuries, cocoa has been touted as an aphrodisiac and a health elixir. The Mayans even used cocoa as a form of cash and buried their aristocrats with it. It appears they believed that "it helped people get into the afterlife and survive in the afterlife," says Nat Bletter, an ethnobotanist and chocolate-maker.
As myths have evolved over cocoa's several thousand year history as a food, so too has the scientific pursuit to understand how it may influence our. Cocoa contains lots of bioactive compounds called flavanols, which have antioxidant and . In recent years, studies have shown the flavanols in cocoa can and lower blood pressure.
