Drinking hot chocolate can “ward off stress-related damage to the heart”, new evidence has claimed.
A recent study from the University of Birmingham has discovered that drinking hot chocolate can benefit your heart even after eating junk food.
Compounds found in chocolate can improve your heart health, especially dark varieties of the sweet treat.
Otherwise known as flavanols, the compounds are also lurking in green tea, berries and apples, prior research has reported.
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Consuming 695mg of flavanols of cocoa powder can protect you from poor health and can prevent a temporary decline in blood vessel function, the findings have revealed.
First author Dr Catarina Rendeiro said: “The team were particularly interested to see if the festive treat could ward off stress-related damage to the heart.
“We know that when people are stressed, they tend to gravitate towards high-fat foods. We have previously shown that fatty food can impair the body’s vascular recovery from stress.”
Dr Rendeiro added: “In this study, we wanted to see if adding a high-flavanol food to the fatty meal would alleviate the negative impact of stress in the body.”
Co-author Professor Jet Veldhuijzen said: “Modern life is stressful and the impact of stress on our health and the economy has been well documented.
“So, any change we can make to protect ourselves from some of the symptoms of stress is positive.”
Professor Veldhuijzen added: “For those who tend to reach for a treat when stressed or depend on convenient food because they work high-pressure jobs or are time-poor, incorporating some of these small changes could make a real difference.”
A total of 23 adults took part in the study, all of whom had a healthy BMI. Majority of the participants consume more than the recommended amount of daily fat and sugar.
For breakfast all of the participants consumed 250ml of whole milk, two butter croissants with 10g of salted butter and one and a half slices of cheddar cheese.
A low-flavanol cocoa drink containing around 5.6mg of flavanols was then given to 50% of the participants, while the other half drank a high-flavanol cocoa drink with 695mg of flavanols.
All the participants took part in a short mental maths test that sped up if they got a question wrong roughly eight minutes after consuming the cocoa drink.
Before and after the test, the researchers assessed the participant’s heart activity, oxygen levels in the prefrontal cortex of the brain and blood flow in the forearm.
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The findings have shown that the participant’s heart rate and blood pressure drastically increased after the maths task.
According to the results, the participants who were given the low-flavanol drink reduced their blood vessel function for 90 minutes.
Meanwhile, those who were given the high-flavanol cocoa drink reduced their blood vessel function for 30 minutes, the study has reported.
Dr Rendeiro said: “This research shows that drinking or eating a food high in flavanols can be used as a strategy to mitigate some of the impact of poorer food choice on the vascular system.
“This can help us make more informed decisions about what we eat and drink during stressful periods.”
Previous research has found that the number of early deaths from cardiovascular complications has hit their highest level in more than 10 years.
Access the study in the journal Food & Function.
