People who eat lots of chocolate seem to enjoy massive improvements in the health of their hearts, researchers said yesterday.
The findings of a major analysis were published at the conference of the European Society of Cardiology in Paris, France.
But experts said this did not mean that everyone should become chocoholics.
One expert said there were better places to start "than at the bottom of a box of chocolates."
Dr Oscar Franco, of Cambridge University, UK, analysed the findings of seven pieces of research involving more than 100,000 people.
Some experts have said dark chocolate might be healthy – while milk chocolate, with less cocoa and more fat and sugar, might not. But Dr Franco said the research did not distinguish between kinds of chocolate.
They showed the greatest level of chocolate consumption link to a 37 per cent reduction in heart disease and a 29 per cent in the risk of stroke – compared to those who ate the least chocolate.
Dr Franco, who also reports the findings in the British Medical Journal, suggests initiatives to reduce the amount of fat and sugar in chocolate might help to turn it into a "healthy snack".
Victoria Taylor, of the British Heart Foundation, said more research was needed on how chocolate might benefit the heart.
She said: "We can’t start advising people to eat lots of chocolate based on this research. It didn’t explore what it is about chocolate that could help and if one particular type of chocolate is better than another.
"If you want to reduce your heart disease risk, there are much better places to start than at the bottom of a box of chocolates. You can still eat chocolate as part of a balanced diet but moderation is key because this sweet treat is usually packed with saturated fat and calories."
* Another conference heard yesterday of the prospects of "designer chocolates" with new tastes and aromas.
Dr Peter Schieberle, of the Technical University of Munich, Germany, has found hundreds of compounds in chocolate – noting that just 25 are needed for a "very good" aroma.
He says he has already identified one way to improve the taste of chocolate – by adding a little sugar early in the fermenting process used to turn cocoa beans into the substance. His findings were reported to the American Chemical Society in Denver, Colorado, USA.
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