Don’t stop eating chocolates. Here’s why

Eating chocolates regularly may lower the risk of developing irregular heartbeats, a condition that affects over 33 million people worldwide, a new study warns.

Previous research has linked eating chocolates, especially dark chocolate, to improvements in heart health. Scientists, including those from Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health in the US, wanted to see if it may be linked to lower rate of atrial fibrillation, also known as heart flutter.

Participants provided information on their usual weekly chocolate consumption, with one serving classified as 30 grammes. Their health was then tracked using episodes of hospital treatment and deaths. During the monitoring period, which averaged 13.5 years, 3,346 new cases of atrial fibrillation were diagnosed.

After accounting for other factors related to heart disease, the newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation rate was 10 per cent lower for 1-3 servings of chocolate a month than it was for less than 1 serving a month.