Chocolate vs Stroke

We ended last week by looking at the effect of chocolate on blood pressure.  Therefore, I thought it would be appropriate to end this week and this month by looking at the effect of chocolate on stroke risk as published early online just 2 days ago in Neurology.  

In the first of two studies, the authors followed 37,103 Swedish men for over 10 years and noted that consumption of 63g/wk of chocolate was associated w/17% lower risk of stroke compared to those men who rarely or never ate chocolate.  Going against the current grain evaluating dark, high flavanol, chocolate specifically, it should be noted that milk chocolate is the chocolate of choice in Sweden, although milk vs dark was not assessed in this study.

The authors then performed a meta-analysis of 5 studies including a total of 4,260 stroke cases.  Compared to those who ate the least chocolate, those who consumed the most chocolate had a 19% lower risk of stroke.

What's this mean for you & me?  The two studies in this article support the fact that chocolate is good for you (when consumed in reasonable amounts) although it did not advance the case for dark chocolate.  Since neither of these were randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies, we can only develop hypotheses as we have not yet proven cause & effect.  Still, it's hard for me to turn down a daily portion of high flavanol chocolate after a day seeing patients . . .

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