[font style="font-family: Verdana; font-weight: bold;" size="2"]Lol, as if I really needed an excuse to eat chocolate...
[/font][hr style="width: 100%; height: 2px;"][h2]Chocolate Lowers Blood Pressure[/h2][div class="subhead_fmt"]Dark Chocolate, Other Cocoa-Rich Foods May Lower Blood Pressure Better Than Tea[/div][div class="author_fmt"] By [a href="vny!://www.webmd.com/jennifer-warner" onclick="return sl(this,'','prog-lnk');"]Jennifer Warner[/a] WebMD Medical News [/div]April 9, 2007 -- A chocolate treat may be better than green or black tea at keeping high blood pressure in check.[/p]A new study suggests that dark chocolate and other cocoa-rich products may be better at lowering blood pressure than tea. [/p]Researchers compared the blood pressure-lowering effects of cocoa and tea in previously published studies and found eating cocoa-rich foods was associated with an average 4.7-point lower systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) and 2.8-point lower diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number). But no such effect was found among any of the studies on black or green tea. [/p]Cocoa and tea are both rich in a class of antioxidants known as polyphenols. But researchers say they contain different types of polyphenols, and those in cocoa may be more effective at lowering blood pressure.[/p][a href="vny!://www.webmd.com/hypertension-high-blood-pressure/news/20070409/chocolate-lowers-blood-pressure"]Full Story[/a]
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