Volume 32, Nº 6, November and December 2019
DOI: http://www.dx.doi.org/10.5935/2359-4802.20190091
EDITORIAL
Chocolate Consumption: Benefits in Cardiovascular Disease
Milena Barcza Stockler-Pinto
The major risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are directly related to endothelial dysfunction, reduced bioavailability of nitric oxide, vasoconstriction, oxidative stress, and inflammation.1 Several studies have been stimulating the use of non-pharmacological strategies to reduce these risk factors. In this sense, some nutrients and bioactive compounds in foods have demonstrated beneficial effects. Chocolate, for example, has gained attention for its content of cocoa, a polyphenols-rich food, and flavanols.2
In the paper entitled “Association between chocolate consumption and severity of first infarction”, Duarte et al.,3 found that patients with the first acute myocardial infarction (AMI) who consumed chocolate, showed a low Syntax index, indicating low complexity of coronary lesions. The authors also demonstrated a negative correlation between Syntax and the amount of chocolate consumed, and an association between chocolate consumption and absence of systemic arterial hypertension and diabetes. The cardioprotective effects of polyphenols present in chocolate have been studied, and a series of results supported the protective effects of cocoa and chocolate intake on CVDs. These protective effects are associated with vasodilation, improvement of endothelial function, platelet aggregation, increase in HDL and reduction in LDL levels.4
Keywords: Cardiovascular Diseases/mortality; Myocardial Infarction/ physiopathology; Flavonoids; Polyphenols; Chocolate.
