Dark chocolate and the heart

[chickeninthewood]

I was heartened to read (pun intended) that dark chocolate with low sugar is good for the heart, can protect it from heart disease and is full of antioxidants, On the other hand I was dismayed to then read that it can cause palpitations due to the caffeine content. What am I to believe? Damned if I do, damned if I don't? I love dark chocolate!

[Hidden]

I work on the basis that a wide and varied diet with a modest amount of each type of food and drink is ideal.

So as part of that what makes sense to me is that I really enjoy a few small pieces of dark chocolate from time to time, but I would never eat a whole bar in an evening.

And as far as the heart is concerned, I like butter but eat it in fairly small quantities in preference to those awful low fat spreads, just like I have bacon from time to time. However that doesn't mean I have a full English every morning with lashings of hot buttered toast and several cups of strong coffee, that may only happen once or twice a year.

[MONIREN]

I have a faulty off button, so avoiding chocolate, we always have it in the home, but if I start I can't stop. Wish it would taste like broccoli, which I do eat, somehow my off button works then!! Lol.

[MichaelJH Heart Star]

I think the trick is to limit it to just a few squares a day!

[rizal in reply to MichaelJH]

That, however, is impossible, I don't believe anyone is able to open a bar of chocolate and just eat 2 or 3 squares! It's unnatural and I am sure there must be a law about it

[Lezzers in reply to MichaelJH]

Really! Surely that's not humanly possible!!🤣

[Hidden]

Dear chickeninthewood

Chocolate, even its name can send me into a child like trance. I have only ever like the darkest of chocolate because my siblings hated it so there was more for me!

Also being Vegan Its the only thing that I can now eat. The only way around it was to change the way that I attack a bar of it, instead of chomping on it till it was gone {quickly} I now suck and savour the stuff a few squares at a time.

I have always been lucky and caffeine doesn’t seem to do much to me, but I am wary about the weight thing { this is someone that can walk past a closed fridge and still get fat} so I limit it for that as well.

Having said that I am staring at a dark chocolate egg wondering which end I shall attack first!

Take care

[peterjones105]

In my case my caffeine intolerance is so high that even looking at a square of my former love I.e. very dark bitter chocolate causes my BP to spike but sadly stay up, Happy Easter all.

[chickeninthewood]

Thank you all you lovely people. Happy Easter with or without chocolate. Thanks for your invaluable advice. xxx

[Hidden]

To some extent, I think it depends on your body and the nature of any cardiac problem you have. Whilst not the case for everyone that has them, dark chocolate is medically proven to increase the frequency of premature contractions (PVCs and PACs) for those sensitive to it, and therefore can directly trigger episodes of both SVT and AF in patients with these arrhythmias. It does also elevate heart rate due to caffeine, so again, not great for people with rate control problems. Although it’s not the only factor with chocolate, to put the caffeine element in context, a 100g bar has about the same amount of caffeine as a shot of espresso - for some people, this would have very little effect, but after several years of deliberately avoiding caffeine (because it triggers my SVT), would - at best - give me near immediate PVCs/PACs and noticeable palpitations generally.