We all love to indulging in chocolate but even when its fair trade we are left feeling a little bit guilty, not that we aren’t doing our bit to fight poverty but about the effects eating chocolate has on our health… until now that is!

A ten-year study found that just one serving of chocolate per week eaten by women over the age of 70 made them 35 percent less likely to die from heart disease, and an incredible 60 percent less likely to die from heart failure.

Flavonoids are behind this recent revelation that looks set to move chocolate from ‘comfort food’ to ‘super food’. Flavonoids help blood vessels function properly, regulate blood pressure, and decrease inflammation in the body, which is often the main cause of heart disease, hypertension and heart failure. For women over the age of 50, heart disease is known as the silent killer and is the number one cause of death - taking the lives of more women than all the cancers combined.

Fair trade chocolate

Despite previous studies being published which have advocated the benefits of eating chocolate this study broke new ground as researchers followed more than 1200 women over the course of ten years. Almost 90 women who reported rarely eating chocolate during the study ended up hospitalized or died from heart disease. Compared with the frequent cocoa eaters, only 65 of those women died or were hospitalised due to heart disease.

As with all things the key is moderation, especially as chocolate is high in sugar, dairy and other unhealthy ingredients that can contribute to health problems. Eating unsweetened cacao powder and RAW chocolate is an easy way to get chocolates new found benefits whilst limiting sugar intake.

To find a large range of delicious fair trade chocolate made by passionate ethical chocolatiers visit www.ethicalcommunity.com

Reference: Internal Medicine; "Habitual Chocolate Intake and Vascular Disease: A Prospective Study of Clinical Outcomes in Older Women"; Joshua R. Lewis; Richard L. Prince; Kun Zhu; Amanda Devine; Peter L. Thompson; Jonathan M. Hodgson; November 2010