A study involving 32,000 Swedish women aged between 48 and 83 has established that older women eating dark chocolate twice or thrice a week are likely to lessen their chances of heart failure by a third.

This effect was however not similar in case of people consuming dark chocolate on a daily basis. The Boston study carried out for almost nine years also found that consumption of dark chocolate too often was damaging and unhealthy.

A reduction in the risk of heart failure to almost 32% was confirmed in people eating 19 to 30 gram servings of dark chocolate a week. This percentage fell down to 26% for all those consuming 19 to 30 gram servings thrice a week.

And as for those who consume dark chocolate everyday thinking this would diminish their heart failure risk are probably on the wrong track.

Dr. Murray Mittleman is the study leader and Director of the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Unit at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre in Boston said, “You can't ignore that chocolate is a relatively calorie-dense food and large amounts of habitual consumption is going to raise your risks for weight gain”.

Chocolate is said to contain high concentration of compounds called flavonoids, which help lower the blood pressure and hence chances of heart failure.