If you suffer from peripheral artery disease (PAD), then dark chocolate is the Duracell of chocolates that will keep you going for longer, according to a paper published in the Journal of American Heart Association.
PAD is a build up of fatty deposits within the arteries that leads to reduced blood flow to the legs which can cause pain, cramping, numbness and weakness to name but a few symptoms.
The researches wanted to see the effect of both dark and milk chocolate on suffers of PAD and so recruited 20 volunteers with PAD to eat 40g of either dark or milk chocolate and then measured markers in the their blood as they walked as far as they could.
The group that ate the dark chocolate were able to walk further than the group fed milk chocolate and this seemed to be related to the dark chocolate helping to combat oxidative stress.
The dark chocolate contained over 85% cocoa solids while the milk chocolate contained less than 35%. The dark chocolate also had higher amounts of polyphenols than the milk chocolate.
Even if you don’t suffer from PAD, the health benefits of dark chocolate have been previously reported such as reducing risk of colon cancer.
Click here to read the article on the Journal of American Heart Association website.