High Blood Pressure Fruit & Veg Tests with Free Chocolate

Published : May 09, 2010 :: 18:05:31 [ 5,707 views ]

High Blood Pressure Fruit & Veg Tests with Free Chocolate

Northern Ireland Chest, Heart and Stroke along with the Northern Ireland Research and Development Office, are to have chocolate delivered to the homes of a group of their 110 volunteers for the opening stage of a new three year research study of people with high blood pressure starting in August.

These volunteers will be encouraged to eat 50gm of chocolate every day for eight weeks as part of the new study to discover if a high fruit and vegetable diet incorporating dark chocolate and berries is better for the cardiovascular system than a diet low in fruit and vegetables.

Doctor Pascal McKeown who is leading the study stated that the important thing is that the chocolate being used will be high in cocoa as standard milk chocolate has nothing like the polyphenol content of dark chocolate.

Half the group of volunteers will be put on an ordinary UK diet which shows that most people tend to include only two portions of fruit and vegetables daily. The other half will be encouraged to eat six portions of fruit and vegetables along with a portion of berries each day, topped of with 50gms of dark chocolate.

At the start and end of the first eight weeks, the volunteers on chocolate will have their blood vessels examined and the level of stickiness to determine whether a diet rich in polyphenols can reduce the risk of developing heart disease.

The Chief Executive of Northern Irelands Heart & Stroke said, “ The example of high quality research has the potential to benefit the people of Northern Ireland, but also has applications further a field. We hope it will provide a solid evidence base for fine tuning the government advise on healthy eating.”

The funding of £32,000 for the project has been provided by North Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke with Doctor Rebecca Noad securing a Fellowship Award from the Department of Health’s Research and Development Office.

Sarah Goldman

Comments

Julian Metcalf

said :

interesting ....

After reading a few articles about high blood pressure -I have drasticly cut my intake of drinking cups of coffee, and replaced it by drinking cocoa, no added milk or sugar -it's taste ok :)
Also increased more vegies, herbs and fruit in my diet. feel a lot better, even though I occasionally eat a pork pie .
I have lost weight, but that was mainly due to extra activity walking around london as a tourist and dancing :)

Email : muddy48@hotmail.com Date : 2010-08-16 09:18:26