Chocolate lovers rejoice. Your indulgence means you are less likely to have a stroke or heart attack, especially if dark chocolate is your thing.
Research shows regularly consuming as little as a square of chocolate a day helps to reduce your blood pressure and thus your chance of succumbing to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Scientists have found that people eating just 7.5g of chocolate daily were at a 39 percent lower risk of having a heart attack or stroke compared with those who ate just 1.7g.
The study, published in the European Heart Journal, found that modest chocolate intake had a significant effect on people’s blood pressure. The benefits were more pronounced for a reduced risk of a stroke, but also brought less chance of a heart attack too.
Researchers led by Brian Buijsse, a nutritional epidemiologist at the German Institute of Human Nutrition, made the link after studying the health of 19,357 Germans aged 35 to 65 for at least 10 years. They believe that flavanols, substances in cocoa that boost the body’s supply of nitric oxide, contribute to the chocolate eaters’ lowered blood pressure.
The research confirms an association that other studies have made. The lower likelihood of stroke may be due to cocoa increasing the flow of blood around the brain, the authors say. Among 1,568 participants whose chocolate intake was tracked 57 percent ate milk chocolate, 24 percent preferred dark and 2 percent ate white chocolate. The dark variety contains more flavanols, and so is thought to have a greater effect.
However, these findings should not lead to chocolate gluttony, said the authors. “Given these and other promising health effects of cocoa, it is tempting to indulge more in chocolate” — but further research was needed before small amounts of chocolate could be prescribed to prevent CVD.
“The amount consumed on average by even the highest consumer was about one square of chocolate a day or half a small chocolate Easter egg in a week, so the benefits were associated with a fairly small amount of chocolate,” said Victoria Taylor, the British Heart Foundation’s senior heart health nurse.
Those tempted to indulge should remember that chocolate contains large amounts of calories and saturated fats, which are related to weight gain and high cholesterol — two risk factors for heart disease. And people should also eat fruit, vegetables and oily fish and be active for at least half an hour daily, Taylor said.
If you are a Western and especially a white foreign resident of Taiwan, you’ve undoubtedly had the experience of Taiwanese assuming you to be an English teacher. There are cultural and economic reasons for this, but one of the greatest determinants is the narrow range of work permit categories that exist for Taiwan’s foreign residents, which has in turn created an unofficial caste system for foreigners. Until recently, laowai (老外) — the Mandarin term for “foreigners,” which also implies citizenship in a rich, Western country and distinguishable from brown-skinned, southeast Asian migrant laborers, or wailao (外勞) — could only ever
Sept. 23 to Sept. 29 The construction of the Babao Irrigation Canal (八堡圳) was not going well. Large-scale irrigation structures were almost unheard of in Taiwan in 1709, but Shih Shih-pang (施世榜) was determined to divert water from the Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪) to the Changhua plain, where he owned land, to promote wet rice cultivation. According to legend, a mysterious old man only known as Mr. Lin (林先生) appeared and taught Shih how to use woven conical baskets filled with rocks called shigou (石笱) to control water diversion, as well as other techniques such as surveying terrain by observing shadows during
In recent weeks news outlets have been reporting on rising rents. Last year they hit a 27 year high. It seems only a matter of time before they become a serious political issue. Fortunately, there is a whole political party that is laser focused on this issue, the Taiwan Statebuilding Party (TSP). They could have had a seat or two in the legislature, or at least, be large enough to attract media attention to the rent issue from time to time. Unfortunately, in the last election, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) acted as a vote sink for
This is a film about two “fools,” according to the official synopsis. But admirable ones. In his late thirties, A-jen quits his high-paying tech job and buys a plot of land in the countryside, hoping to use municipal trash to revitalize the soil that has been contaminated by decades of pesticide and chemical fertilizer use. Brother An-ho, in his 60s, on the other hand, began using organic methods to revive the dead soil on his land 30 years ago despite the ridicule of his peers, methodically picking each pest off his produce by hand without killing them out of respect