Urbana, April 16 - Have recent news reports sent you hurrying to the doctor to evaluate your cholesterol medications? The results of a new University of Illinois study have demonstrated one effective way to lower cholesterol levels--and it's very easy to take your medicine.
"Eating two CocoaVia® dark chocolate bars a day not only lowered cholesterol, it had the unexpected effect of also lowering systolic blood pressure," said John Erdman, a U of I professor of food science and human nutrition. The study was published in this month's Journal of Nutrition.
Erdman attributes the drop in cholesterol numbers (total cholesterol by 2 percent and LDL or "bad" cholesterol by 5.3 percent) to the plant sterols that have been added to the CocoaVia® bar and the drop in blood pressure to the flavanols found in dark chocolate.
Forty-nine persons with slightly elevated cholesterol and normal blood pressure were recruited for the study, but not before dietitian Robin Allen's computer crashed.
"Basically, we said, would you like to eat chocolate and have your cholesterol measured? Let's just say we had a lot of interest," said Allen, who conducted the study under Erdman's supervision.
Those chosen for the double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study began the American Heart Association's (AHA) "Eating Plan for Healthy Americans" (formerly the Step 1 diet) two weeks before the study started; then they were divided into two matched groups. Two types of CocoaVia® bars were then introduced, one with plant sterols and one without.
While remaining on the AHA diet, participants ate one CocoaVia® formulation twice daily for four weeks, then switched to the other bar for an additional four weeks. Blood cholesterol levels, blood pressure, body weight, and other cardiovascular measures were measured throughout the eight-week study.
"After the participants started the AHA diet, a lot of them began to lose weight, so we had to keep fussing at them to eat more. We didn't want a weight change because that also lowers cholesterol," said Ellen Evans, a U of I assistant professor of kinesiology and community health and co-author of the study.
"After starting the CocoaVia® bars, we saw a marked differential effect on blood cholesterol, with the sterol-containing products doing better than those without sterols," she said.
According to Evans, a CocoaVia® bar contains 100 calories, so adding two to your daily diet means you have to cut out 200 calories elsewhere.
"But, if you're already having a chocolate snack each day, why not pick one that's going to have a beneficial effect on your health? I think one of the reasons so many people wanted to be in the study is that they're looking for something they can reasonably do, and this fits into that category," she said.
And, if you eat the chocolate bars in combination with a lifestyle change, such as adopting a heart-healthy diet or adding 30 minutes of moderate physical activity each day, you might have a 10- or 12-point reduction in cholesterol, she said.
According to Erdman, who chairs the Mars Scientific Advisory Council, the Mars Company has spent millions of dollars studying the biological impact of the flavanols found in cocoa beans and learning how to retain their benefits during the refining process.
"And we know that flavanols are still present in dark chocolate after processing. But milk chocolate is processed differently, and most flavanols are lost," he said.
Is the study biased because it was funded by Mars, Inc.? Erdman says that some people will assume the study is flawed for that reason.
"I know that it was a double-blind trial that wasn't skewed toward a particular result. Moreover, the paper was peer-reviewed and published in the Journal of Nutrition, which ranks in the top 10 percent of all the biological science journals," he said.
CocoaVia® bars are available at many retail locations.
Other authors of the study are LeaAnn Carson of the U of I and Catherine Kwik-Uribe, research manager of Mars, Inc. The work was supported in part by a grant from Mars, Inc., and by the University of Illinois.