Sweet news! Chocolate’s good for you

EATING chocolate regularly could lower the risk of heart disease by eight to 12 per cent, a study has found.

This could be because of the cocoa content and flavonoids, which protect the body from toxins.

VA Boston Healthcare System used data from 188,447 veterans, who were around 64 years old – with 90 per cent being men.

Those who ate 28.3g a month of chocolate lowered their risk of heart disease by eight per cent, and all were free of coronary artery disease by the time the survey was completed.

However, chocolate had no affect on people with Type two diabetes.

Eating less than one serving a month (28.6g) resulted in 20.2 fatal and non-fatal coronary artery disease events out of 1,000 people whereas eating two to four servings led to 17.1 over a three-year period.

Other research has found eating higher amounts increases the risk of health issues.