A general piece of advice often given to writers is to simply write about what you love. This might go most of the way to explaining why we at Tonic have posted a lot of articles about chocolate.
And what’s not to love? It’s a delicious treat for sure, and its biochemical make up is continuously surprising us with new uses and benefits running the gamut from stress reduction to cardiovascular health to serving as token of affection to improved cognitive function and even to biofuel. It’s an impressive resume, and it’s bolstered still with findings reported by Science Daily of chocolate’s ability to lower risk profile for stroke.
Canadian researchers Sarah Sahib and Gustavo Saposnik have released a preview of findings scheduled to be presented in greater detail at the April annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. In a review of existing research data, the pair found in one study of nearly 45,000 participants that the consumption of just one weekly serving of chocolate were 22% less likely to suffer a stroke compared to those that ate none. A second study reviewed indicates that for those who have had a stroke, those who have the weekly nibble of chocolate are almost 50% less likely to die from the event compared to those who do not.
Plenty of evidence has been amassed over recent years regarding the positive impact that the flavonoid compounds contained in chocolate as well as red wine have on cardiovascular health. Strangely, the researchers found only these three prior studies specifically exploring linkage between eating chocolate and risk of stroke: the two described above, and a third that was inconclusive. And so while Sahib and Saposnik tell Science Daily that further research into the matter to shore up the linkage will be necessary, for now their initial findings sure are pretty sweet.
Photo courtesy of Stu Spivak via flickr
