A recent study has indicated that women eating a small amount of good quality chocolate a couple of times a week could reduce heart failure risk by 32%.  However, eating chocolate daily seemed to eliminate its postive effects.

The study was reported in Circulation: Heart Failure, a journal of the Americal Heart Association, and looked at 31,000 Swedish women over a 9 year period.  It found that women who ate an average of one to two small amounts of high quality dark chocolate each week gained the most benefit, with those having 1-3 servings per month has a 26% lower risk with those who ate daily having no reduced risk at all.

Dr Mittleman, director of the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Unit at Harvard Medical School’s 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.

“But if you’re going to have a treat, dark chocolate is probably a good choice, as long as it’s in moderation.”