Experts have said that eating a bar of dark chocolate a day can protect against heart disease, but only if it has been enriched with olive oil.
A study found that these foods boost the number of cells used to repair blood cells, preventing the blood vessels from hardening. These cells are called endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) and are vital to vascular health and healing.
“A healthy diet is known to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease,” said Dr Rossella Di Stefano, a cardiologist at the University of Pisa, Italy.
“Fruits and vegetables exert their protective effects through plant polyphenols, which are found in cocoa, olive oil, and apples.
“Research has found that the Italian Panaia red apple has very high levels of polyphenols and antioxidants.
“We found that small daily portions of dark chocolate with added natural polyphenols from extra virgin olive oil was associated with an improved cardiovascular risk profile.
“Our study suggests that extra virgin olive oil might be a good food additive to help preserve our ‘repairing cells’, the EPC.”
The study included 26 volunteers, 14 men and 12 women, who had at least three risk factors for cardiovascular conditions, such as high cholesterol or blood pressure, smoking or a family history of heart conditions.
All of these volunteers were given 40g of dark chocolate each day for 28 days, with this being enriched with olive oil for two weeks before switching to chocolate containing Panaia red apple.
The researchers found that the olive-oil-enriched chocolate caused significantly higher EPC levels, compared to both the apple-enriched chocolate and the beginning of the study. They also found that olive-oil-enriched chocolate also caused much higher levels of “good” cholesterol and lower blood pressure.
“Consumption of enriched dark chocolate resulted in modification of metabolism with potential long-term consequences on cardiovascular health within four weeks,” said Dr Di Stefano.
“However, only extra virgin olive oil dark chocolate consumption results in improvement of endothelial function, associated with the increase of EPC circulating levels, probably due to the additive effect of extra virgin olive oil polyphenols.”
