Friday chocolate blogging

Here I was lusting for chocolate from afar because of my high blood pressure.

From Yahoo news:

Chocolate Linked to Low Blood Pressure...A study of older men in The Netherlands, known for its luscious chocolate, indicated those who ate the equivalent of one-third of a chocolate bar every day had lower blood pressure and a reduced risk of death.

A quick look at the abstract popped my little chocolate covered bubble. While those who consume chocolate have lower BPs, the numbers aren't that much lower: 3.7 mm diastolic and 2.1 mm systolic. Oh darn, I was hoping for a medicinal effect.

It looks as though participants were screened to include only those who don't take blood pressure meds. Even worse, these men consumed the equivalent of a 1/3 of a bar of chocolate. Jeez, who eats only 1/3 of a bar by the way? Not only that, the researchers decline to generalize these findings towards women. Which leads me to wonder: when will women be studied? There's a somewhat equivalent question to that one in the blogosphere, btw.

Still, I'm happy to see a study showing (that in elderly men who don't take blood pressure medication) chocolate (and only 1/3 of a bar of chocolate at that) consumption is linked to lower blood pressure (by a few mm, diastolic and systolic).