German researchers have estimated that, over a period of 10 years, at least 85 lives per 10,000 would be saved if people ate just a little over one small square of chocolate, preferably dark chocolate, each day.
According to Dr. Brian Buijsse, a nutritional epidemiologist at the German Institute of Human Nutrition, people who ate about 8 grams of chocolate per day were at a 32% lower risk of heart disease and stroke than those who ate less than 2 grams per day. The reason: eating chocolate lowered systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
The good doctor attributed this lowered risk to flavanols in cocoa that "are responsible for improving the bioavailability of nitric oxide from the cells that line the inner wall of blood vessels." The nitric oxide (a gas):
once released, causes the smooth muscle cells of the blood vessels to relax and widen; this may contribute to lower blood pressure. Nitric oxide also improves platelet function, making the blood less sticky, and makes the vascular endothelium [cells lining the blood vessels] less attractive for white blood cells to attach and stick around.American socialists don't want you to touch those salty pretzels.
I say, follow the European model (this one time): Dip those salty pretzels in chocolate.
With the Democrats in power, your blood vessels need all the nitric oxide they can get.
From FuturePundit via Instapundit.
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