A new Italian study suggests that eating a small piece of dark chocolate daily, protects the heart from heart disease and inflammation, which is a good news for chocoholics. Dark chocolate has richest flavanol levels, that is good for heart. Milk chocolate has a much lower flavanol level.

Flavonoids, through the production of nitric oxide, help in relaxing the blood pressure and allow blood to flow more easily.  

Moti -sani Project, one of the largest health studies ever conducted in Europe, specify that eating only 6.7 grams of chocolate in a day represents the ideal amount for protecting against the heart disease. 

The Catholic university in Campobasso, Italy and the National Cancerdefine Institute of Milan enrolled about 20,000 people for the study. The researchers found a positive relationship between dark chocolate intake and levels of the C-reactive protein (a marker for inflammation) in the blood of 4,849 people with good health and free of risk factor. 

They also found that people who consume moderate amount of dark chocolate everyday, have significantly lower levels of C-reactive protein. 

Romina di Giuseppe, lead author of the study said, “We started from the hypothesis that high amounts of antioxidants contained in the cocoa seeds, in particular flavonoids and other kinds of polyphenols, might have beneficial effects on the inflammatory state.” and he also added that “Our results have been absolutely encouraging: People having moderate amounts of dark chocolate regularly have significantly lower levels of C-reactive protein in their blood. In other words, their inflammatory state is considerably reduced.” 

In 2003, two studies proved that eating or drinking certain kind of chocolate can be helpful in slowing down brain degeneration as a person ages. In this study Romina di Giuseppe said, “The best effect is obtained by consuming an average amount of 6.7 grams of chocolate per day, corresponding to a small square of chocolate twice or three times a week. Beyond these amounts the beneficial effect tends to disappear.” 

Licia Iacoviello, head of the laboratory and responsible for the Moti-sani project said, “We consider this outcome as the beginning of a large series of data which will give us an innovative view on how [to achieve] prevention in everyday life, both against cardiovascular disease and tumors.”