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Dark Chocolate Helps Lower Blood Pressure

Chocolate lovers, rejoice. Antioxidants in dark chocolate can help slightly lower blood pressure. But you must limit your portions to 30 calories a day—slightly more than one Hershey's Kiss.

Eating unlimited quantities of the flavanol-rich cocoa in dark chocolate won't work because "the potential blood pressure reduction contributed by the flavanols could be offset by the high sugar, fat, and calorie intake with the cocoa products," German researchers warn.

They based their advice on an 18-week study of 44 adults, ages 56 to 73, whose blood pressure was at the high end of normal, or the low end of high.

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