The message comes from a study in which researchers have analyzed self-reported data on, among other things, chocolate consumption from around 190,000 individuals in the United States.
The people included did not have diabetes, cardiovascular disease or cancer at the beginning of the study period and they were followed up for an average of 25 years. The participants repeatedly filled in information about, among other things, dietary habits.
The researchers compared information on chocolate consumption from the forms with health data registers and the occurrence of, among other things, type 2 diabetes.
Lower cancer risk
For around 111,600 individuals there was information on the type of chocolate they ate, light or dark. After the researchers took into account other risk factors for diabetes such as diet, physical activity, BMI and family history of diabetes, they found that those who said they ate at least 150 grams of dark chocolate a week had a 21 percent lower risk of developing diabetes than those who who did not eat dark chocolate.
In addition, a 3 percent reduction in risk was seen for each additional 30-gram serving they ate per week. An increased intake of milk chocolate was linked to weight gain, which was not the case for dark chocolate. The results have been published in the journal BMJ.
Antioxidants
Dark chocolate often contains as many calories and percentage of saturated fat as milk chocolate. The researchers reason that it may be the high percentage of flavonoids found in dark chocolate that provides health benefits. Flavonoids belong to a group of substances usually called antioxidants that are found in, among other things, berries, apples, cabbage and spinach.
But the researchers point out that, based on the results, it is not possible to establish that it is the dark chocolate that is behind the lower diabetes risk.