Dark chocolate reduced ACE by 18%. Comparable to prescription blood pressure drugs.
When researchers at Linköping University in Sweden fed a group of volunteers a good-sized piece of dark chocolate, it inhibited an enzyme in their bodies that is known to raise blood pressure. Findings were published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology,
Ten men and six women between the ages of 20 and 45 -- ate 75 grams of unsweetened chocolate with a cocoa content of 72 percent. To analyze what happened with the ACE enzyme, blood samples were taken in advance and then a half hour, one hour, and three hours afterward.
In the sample taken three hours afterward, there was a significant inhibition of ACE activity. The average was 18 percent lower activity than before the dose of cocoa, fully comparable to the effect of drugs that inhibit ACE and are used as a first-choice treatment for high blood pressure
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