Consuming chocolate once per week may decrease CAD risk
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Consuming chocolate at least once per week reduces the risk for CAD, researchers found.
“We somewhat know from prior research that eating chocolate may reduce blood pressure,” Chayakrit Krittanawong, MD, physician-scientist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, told Healio. “Lower blood pressure can prevent and reduce the risks of heart diseases. We found that consumption of chocolates at least once a week is probably associated with a reduction in the risk of coronary artery disease (eg, heart disease).”
In a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, researchers analyzed data from 336,289 participants from six prospective studies with an exposure of interest of chocolate consumption. These studies also assessed outcomes that included combined CAD, ACS and acute MI.
High chocolate consumption was defined as more than one time per week or more than 3.5 times per month. Follow-up was conducted for a median of 8.78 years.
Participants in this review had 21,777 diseases including CAD (n = 14,043), MI (n = 4,667), HF (n = 332) and cerebrovascular accidents (n = 2,735).
Participants with higher chocolate consumption had a decreased risk for CAD compared with those with low chocolate consumption (pooled RR = 0.92; 95% CI, 0.86-0.99; I2 = 48.6%).
When excluding a study that used a cutoff of more than 3.5 times per month for chocolate consumption, participants who consumed chocolate more than one time per week had a decreased risk for CAD (pooled RR = 0.9; 95% CI, 0.84-0.97; I2 = 46.6%). In a sensitivity analysis when excluding a study that was presented as an abstract, the pooled RR was 0.94 (95% CI, 0.85-1.03; I2 = 52.2%).
“This is an observational study, meaning we cannot conclude the causal relationship that eating chocolate can prevent or reduce heart disease,” Krittanawong said in an interview. “There are many confounders that we don’t have in this study. We have to ensure the results were not from those confounders before we implement it into the clinical practice. For example, people who love eating chocolate may eat more fruit and vegetables than people who don’t like chocolate.”
For more information:
Chayakrit Krittanawong, MD, can be reached at chayakrit.krittanawong@bcm.edu; Twitter: @krittanawongmd.
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