2006年NPR美国国家公共电台十一月-More Good News for Chocolate Lovers

（单词翻译）

If you can not resist chocolate, a new study offers a reason not to feel so guilty about eating small amounts, like say that bag of chocolate chip cookies that somebody brought into our studio this morning. Anyway, researchers have made a surprise finding: People who eat chocolaty foods may benefit from an aspirin¹-like effect. NPR's Alison Aubrey reports.

For people who are passionate² about chocolate, the news is a boost. Take Cheri Davis Gardner, who guiltlessly picks up a chocolate-covered macaroon at a Washington bakery.

It's a food of the God, so it's wonderful. So I eat it and I like it.

Resisting chocolate is nearly impossible for some people. Researchers at Johns Hopkins learned this last year after recruiting over a thousand men and women to participate in a study. The goal was to figure out why some people benefit more from aspirin's blood-thinning effect. At the beginning of the study, the researchers instructed everyone to completely avoid chocolate, strawberries, grapes and teas, which are all thought at high levels to affect blood platelet activity. But lead researcher Diane Baker³ says 140 people blew it and fessed up to eating chocolaty foods.

Chocolate chip cookies in cake and in icecream, and they consumed relatively⁴ small amounts, because they knew they weren't supposed to be eating it.

These people could no longer be a part of the aspirin study. Becker called them the chocolate offenders⁵. But she decided⁶ to study their blood too. In one test, she ran the offenders' blood through a mechanical blood vessel⁷ system, basically a hair-thin plastic tube, which is designed to measure how long it takes for the platelets to clump⁸ together, or form a mini blood clot⁹.

Then what normally happens is that there is a time that is known to be the normal amount of time that everybody would do. What happens with chocolate is it actually increases that amount of time. Meaning it takes more time for the platelets to clump and close off the blood vessel tube. This is advantageous¹⁰ because blood clots¹¹ can lead to heart attacks and strokes.

Becker says prior laboratory studies have shown that mega-doses of dark cocoa do seem to have this anti-clumping effect. But she never guessed the effect would hold up in her offenders group.

I was very surprised that small amount of casual consumption of chocolate would have this big an effect.

The results are exciting for Becker who carried out this study independently with no funding from the chocolate industry, but she says it's important to put the findings in perspective. Chocolate should never be mistaken as a medicine even if it can produce an anti-clumping effect similar to aspirin, chocolate is nowhere near as potent¹².

" With aspirin, it's much more dramatic".

Becker presented her findings to the American Heart Association's annual meeting this week. They've yet to be published, but researcher Alice Lichtenstein of Tufts University says the study is intriguing¹³. The assumption has been that it's only pure forms of dark chocolate, rich in chemicals called flavanols that have any beneficial effect at all. But Lichtenstein says since Becker's chocolate offenders weren't eating pure chocolate and may have been eating cookies and cakes with very low levels of flavanols, it raises all kinds of new questions.

So then we have to step back and say, well, is it chocolate, is it flavanols, is it something else associated with people eating chocolate?

So for now Lichtenstein's advice is to enjoy a little chocolate if you love it, but don't assume it's helping¹⁴ your heart.

As for chocoholic Cheri Davis Gardner: I never feel guilty about chocolate. It's the sugar that's bad.

And the calories from fat, too. But she says the food of the God is still heavenly in moderation.
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macaroon
蛋白杏仁饼干
blood platelet
[医]血小板
fess
To admit to something; confess:
承认某事；供认：
"won't fess up to being even vaguely¹⁵ liberal"(Jonathan Alter)
"不会老实地承认即使是暧昧的公平"(乔纳森•奥尔特)
in perspective
adv.
正确地, 显示在脑海中, 符合透视法地
flavanol
黄烷醇
in moderation
适中地