Eating small doses of chocolate has been shown to lower your risk of a stroke or heart attack.

A new study indicates that eating chocolate each day can be good for your heart.  According to this study from the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Nuthetal, Germany, eating small amounts of chocolate can reduce your risk of a stroke or heart attack by 40%.

To obtain their results, German scientists followed 20,000 people over eight years.  They sent them a daily questionnaire about their diet and exercise.  The people in this survey had no history of heart disease and had similar healthy habits.  Researchers found that those who ate about a square of chocolate a day obtained these positive results of a lower risk of stroke or heart attack.

Experts theorize that it is the flavonols in chocolate that are having this positive impact.  Flavonols can cause muscles in blood vessels to widen and thus lower blood pressure.

Brian Buijsse from German Institute of Human Nutrition stated, “It’s a bit too early to come up with recommendations that people should eat more chocolate, but if people replace sugar or high-fat snacks with a little piece of dark chocolate, that might help.”

Of course, don’t take these findings as an excuse to go out and gorge on chocolate!  Eating large amounts of chocolate can quickly pack on the pounds.  Also when you are choosing chocolate, be sure to opt for a choice with high cacao content.  Avoid milk chocolate bars from the grocery store as have a lower ratio of the beneficial elements.  They are also packed with sugar and often include artificial ingredients as well.

Aside from lowering your risk of stroke and heart attack, dark chocolate has other beneficial properties.  It boosts good cholesterol and lowers stress and anxiety.  The flavonoids in chocolate have also been shown to fight aging.

Sources:
news.yahoo.com
denverpost.com

Salmon is a heart-healthy rich source of Omega-3.

There are few things more satisfying than recommending something years ago, and having those recommendations supported by science several years later.

“The Blood Pressure Miracle ” started out as an e-book.  Years later, thanks to you, the print version of “The Blood Pressure Miracle ” has achieved best seller status on Amazon.com.

Of course I’m happy about this, but I honestly expected nothing else.  People recognize the legitimacy of all-natural healing methods, which has been made manifest to me in the amount of positive feedback I’ve received throughout my career,  and even more so recently.  That’s because people have employed my scientifically-backed methods, and it’s paying dividends for thousands upon thousands of people.

One of the things I recommend in my book is supplementing with omega-3s , be it in pill form or in the foods we eat.  The omega-3s found primarily in fish are loaded with benefits for the brain, heart, immune and digestive systems.  Its benefits are so far-reaching, that it’s often referred to as the “miracle fat.”

And it was this “miracle fat” that researchers from four universities supplied approximately 300 overweight and hypertensive volunteers with.

To analyze the effects of omega-3s on the volunteers, the researchers had the participants consume one of several omega-3 diets over the course of eight weeks, all of which were energy-restricted:  a cod diet, a salmon diet, a fish oil diet or a control diet.  The people who ate the fish (lucky them!) ate 150 grams of their respective fish three times a week, the salmon one containing about 2.3 grams of omega-3s per day, the cod about 0.3 grams of omega-3s per day.  Those on the fish oil supplements had about 1.3 grams of omega-3s per day.

By the study’s conclusion, not only had the participants on the fish diets dropped weight – nearly 12 pounds on average – but their blood pressure levels dropped as well.

Any blood pressure level that’s over 120/80 is in the worry stage, but anything over 140/90 is the red alert stage.  So when researchers found that these hypertensive participants had dropped their systolic and diastolic pressure levels by 4.4 and 7.4 mmHg, respectively, you can imagine the relief they felt (not to mention the participants themselves).  And that was after just two months – imagine the benefits on the participants a year from now!

This was a joint study conducted by several world-renowned universities, including the University of Iceland and the University of Navarra.  It will soon be published in the journal Nutrition , but it can be found in its pre-published form on their Web site.

When it comes to omega-3s, the benefits just keep evolving.  They’re a lot like a movie or book that you’ve seen or read over and over again, where every time you go back to it, you get a new wrinkle, a new permutation that you didn’t recognized before.

The best sources for omega-3s are through fish, salmon being among the most abundant.  But as this study demonstrates, even cod – a rather bland, flaky fish that is comparatively lacking in omega-3s – can bring down those blood pressure levels.
Bottom line: Get these miracle fats into your system and let them work their wonder!

Source:
nutraingredients.com