Grab Your Chocolate!

Great news as of February 17, 2010 if you are reading it here ... according to the American Academy of Neurology, recommends eating a bar a chocolate each week to help reduce chances of strokes!  The study also suggests that eating chocolate may lower the risk of death after a stroke.  Now hurry and eat your chocolate before a new study counters that claim! 

*Here are the findings:

• One study they looked at found that 44,489 people who ate one serving of chocolate per week were 22% less likely to have a stroke than people who ate no chocolate.
• Another study found that 1,169 people who ate 50 grams of chocolate once a week were 46% less likely to die following a stroke than people who didn’t eat chocolate.

Dark chocolate (usually described as containing at least 70 percent cocoa solids) contains plant pigments called flavonoids, which have been linked to health benefits. These include reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease (such as heart attacks and strokes) or cancer. Chocolate is not the only source of flavonoids. Most plants contain some flavonoids, and good sources are tea, citrus fruit, and red wine.

The research appears in this week’s Neurology and will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 62nd annual meeting in Toronto in April.

I've been using that excuse to eat a piece of dark chocolate every day.  Enjoy!

*Taken from the Health Freedom Alliance Organization.  To read the full article, go here:  http://blogs.healthfreedomalliance.org/blog/2010/02/16/chocolate-reduces-risk-of-stroke/