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Larsson S C, Virtamo J et al. Neurol 2012; 79: 1223–1229

In laboratory studies, flavonoids found in particularly dark chocolate have been shown to have an antioxidant, antiplatelet, and anti-inflammatory effect. In addition, 'feeding trials show that chocolate consumption reduces blood pressure'. When considering dental caries, some components of chocolate have protective effects although the consumption of sweet snacks sends out mixed dental messages. This paper reports two investigations. In the first, a multivariable relative risk of 0.83 (95% CI 0.70-0.99) was found in almost two thousand stroke victims over a ten-year period, when comparing those who consumed a median weight of 62.9 g/week with others who did not eat chocolate. In the second investigation, it was calculated from a meta-analysis of five studies, that 'the overall relative risk of stroke for the highest vs lowest category of chocolate consumption was 0.81 (95% CI 0.73-0.90)'.