一项荷兰的调查发现，常吃巧克力的老人在某些疾病的死亡率比不常吃巧克力的人要低上百分之五十。

目前大家所喜欢吃的巧克力可以说是由荷兰人首先发明的。他们利用加入碱的方法成功的去除了可可豆中的苦味。而荷兰的国家公共卫生及环境研究所(National Institute for Public Health and the Environment)的Brian Buijsse最近发表了一个调查报告(Zutphen Elderly Study)，针对1000位年纪在65到84岁的男性进行调查。其中一部分的研究是针对470个男性在1985年到2000年间，可可的食用量进行分析。

营养师列出24种含有可可的食物，从巧克力棒到巧克力酱，然后分别计算出里面所含的可可量，以此来计算每个人每天所吃的可可克数。根据调查结果，他们把受访对象分为吃很少巧克力、中等量巧克力、及大量巧克力三群。吃最多的一群大约每天可可的摄取量大约是四克。

他们发现，吃大量巧克力的人，收缩压跟舒张压大概比不常吃巧克力的人低了3.7跟2.1厘米汞柱。吃其他甜食就看不出这个差别。而常抽烟跟常喝酒的人，这个效果就不显著。而吃巧克力所伴随的高卡路里，也没有对心脏产生影响。相反的，常吃巧克力的人，心脏冠状动脉出现疾病的机率甚至比一般人低了百分之五十。

尽管吃巧克力显示会降低血压并可能可以延长寿命，但是根据研究报告，这两者之间并没有发现统计上的关联。所以科学家似乎还要把巧克力好好研究一番。目前唯一所知道的，是可可豆富含大量的抗氧化剂，这可能是相当重要的因素。

Cocoa Linked to Lower Risk of Disease

The Dutch have a long history with chocolate. Although native Mexicans and their Spanish conquerors first used the bitter bean--and reported on its tonic powers--a Dutchman was the first to extract modern cocoa and neutralize its bitterness with alkali. The modern chocolate bar was born. Now, results from a study of aging Dutch men have shown that cocoa consumers were half as likely to die from disease than those who did not eat the sweet treat.

Brian Buijsse of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in Bilthoven and his colleagues measured the cocoa intake of 470 men between 1985 and 2000 as part of the Zutphen Elderly Study, a longitudinal look at nearly 1,000 Dutch men between 65 and 84 years of age. The nutrition experts identified 24 cocoa-containing foods that the elderly men ate, ranging from dark chocolate bars to chocolate spreads. They summed the total amount of cocoa each consumed and came up with a grams-per-day measurement, which they used to separate the men into three groups: those who ate little chocolate, a modest amount, and the most.