Dark chocolates are good!
Eating dark chocolate may be almost as effective at lowering blood pressure as taking the most common anti-hypertensive drugs, a review of studies has found. Tea, on the other hand, appears to be ineffective.
The article says a diet rich in fruits and vegetables is healthy, partly because plants contain chemical substances called polyphenols that help control blood pressure. In Western countries, the major sources of dietary polyphenols are tea and chocolate, but studies of their ties to blood pressure have had mixed results.
Four of the five studies on chocolate found reduced blood pressure after eating, but none of the tea studies showed significant benefit. The magnitude of the effect of eating three-and-a-half ounces of dark chocolate a day was clinically significant, comparable to that of beta-blockers like atenolol, known by the brand name Tenormin, or propranolol, known as Inderal. The authors acknowledge that the studies were short and that results may not apply to habitual use.

Fatter by the dozen?
Swedish children, like their American counterparts, are growing fatter, researchers say. In a write-up, scientists describe two groups of children in Uppsala, Sweden. The first included children who were 4, 10 and 16 in 1982. The second group had children who were the same ages in 2002. The prevalence of overweight and obese children as measured by body mass index increased among the 4-year-old girls, to 22 percent in 2002 from 10 percent in 1982, and among 10-year-old girls, to 30 percent in 2002 from 14 percent in 1982.
Among the boys, the differences were smaller; 10 percent of 4-year-olds had a BMI of 25 or higher in 1982, and 18 percent in 2002. Among the 10-year-old boys, 8 percent were overweight in 1982 and 21 percent in 2002. But among 16-year-olds, there were no differences between the 1982 and 2002 groups.
Ulf Holmback, the lead author and a researcher in nutrition at Uppsala University, said the lack of a difference in the 16-year-olds could probably be explained by the reluctance of heavier adolescents to consent to being weighed.
The authors conceded that the study was limited by the lack of data on parents' BMI and ethnicity. The study's large size and dependence on medical data rather than self-reports are significant strengths.
New York Times