Your heart: chocolate good, meat bad

Two new heart studies tell us more about nutrition and the heart.

First, the bad news.

Cutting back on red and processed meats may significantly reduce heart disease risk in women, a new study says. Scientists examined data on 84,136 women between the ages of 30 and 55 over a 26-year period ending in 2006. The study found that women who had two servings per day of red meat had a 30% greater risk of developing heart disease compared to women who had half a serving daily.

Now the good news.

Researchers in Boston examined data from a nine-year study of 31,823  women in Sweden to determine the effect of eating chocolate on heart disease and found that eating some of the sweet stuff may reduce the risk of heart failure.

• Women who ate an average of one to two servings of high-quality chocolate per week had a 32% lower risk of developing heart failure.
• Women who had one to three servings per month had a 26% reduced risk.
• Women who ate at least one serving daily did not appear to benefit from a protective effect, probably due to the additional calories.

Darn.