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34 sats \ 1 reply \ @02a9a61fdc OP 7 Nov \ parent \ on: Is Chocolate healthy? health

I agree that many studies in nutritional epidemiology are flawed.

But lets stay on the chocolate topic: I think the weight of evidence supports the claim that dark chocolate consumption provides a net benefit for cardiovascular health. Lets look at more data points:

In a recent controlled clinical trial daily intake of cocoa extract vs placebo for 3.6 years was compared in several thousand healthy volunteers. While the difference in cardiovascular events was non-significant, there was a significant reduction of cardiovascular death in the cocoa group (https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqac055)
Two mechanisms were identified by which cocoa constituents exert beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system: Reduction of platelet reactivity, ultimately decreasing the risk for thrombosis (e.g. https://doi.org/10.1097/SMJ.0b013e31818859eb and https://doi.org/10.1080/0953710031000123681) Improvement of endothelial function, resulting in reduced blood pressure (e.g. https://doi.org/10.1080/07315724.2004.10719361 and https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16172911)

Btw, if you can´t access the publications, try Sci-Hub ;)

42 sats \ 0 replies \ @Signal312 8 Nov

Thanks for the info. I don't have any specific knowledge about these studies but I still have zero trust in them. (Also I'm not knowledgeable enough in study design and methodology to critique these particular ones).

But here's the reason for my zero trust. I was fooled by studies like this for a long time, in many different nutritional areas. However, the studies all had one thing in common - they all pointed to the same direction. Meat and animal is bad, fiber, whole grains, fruit and veggies is good. That's the way the propaganda is going now.

And when I read The Big Fat Surprise (and many other books, but that was the first and most influential), I learned that most of the studies were trash. And studies that showed the opposite were actively suppressed.

And more importantly, when I actually started eating the EXACT OPPOSITE of what the studies recommended, I found my health massively, massively improved. And it didn't even take long.

So bottom line - no faith in these types of studies, I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. And that doesn't include chocolate. ;-)