Eat Chocolate, Fish, Garlic and Red Wine

[Keith]

Eat Chocolate, Fish, Garlic and Red Wine to Live Longer

September 7, 2005

By Sue Dunleavy

The Australian

A diet recommending you eat 3 1/2 ounces (100g) of chocolate a day and drink red wine, which will add six years to your life - is this for real?

Scientists in Australia and The Netherlands have come up with a diet they claim will cut a person's risk of heart disease by 78%.

And the good news is, you'll want to be on it.

The diet focuses on seven foods that have been proven to reduce cholesterol and blood pressure.

It involves daily consumption of 5 ounces (150ml) of red wine, which has been found to cut heart disease risk by 32%.

Chocaholics line up, because you have to consume 3 1/2 ounces (100g) of dark chocolate per day, an amount the scientists calculate will reduce blood pressure.

You have to eat four meals of fish each week 14 ounces (each 114g), which is said to reduce your heart disease risk by 14%.

The diet also includes a daily total of 400g of fruit and vegetables, also proven to cut blood pressure, and 68g of almonds to cut cholesterol.

You also have to consume 2.7g of garlic per day to reduce your cholesterol levels.

In a paper published in the British Medical Journal, scientists claim that if all these foods are combined in a diet they will lower the risk of heart disease by 78%.

The research shows men who stuck to this diet would gain an extra 6 years of life and have an extra 9 years free from heart disease.

Women would gain an extra 4.8 years of life and have an extra eight years without heart disease.

The proponents, including Anna Peeters from Monash University, claim the only adverse effects from the diet would be body odour from the garlic and raised mercury levels if more than the recommended amount of fish was eaten each week.

But they don't calculate whether it will help you lose weight.

And they warn that extra alcohol above that prescribed by the diet could reduce the effectiveness of the diet.

They say you can add extra ingredients to the diet to boost its effectiveness, including olive oil, soy beans, tomatoes, oat bran, cereals, nuts, tea and chickpeas.

[hmh]

I think I just ate the recommended yearly amount of chocolate since four this afternoon.

[Pipit]

WOO-HOO!! I think the guys who come to my place for Bible study (where we drink alot of tea and eat alot of chocolate) will love to hear that news.

And the garlic and wine thing... well, that's great news! We stuff so much garlic in our chilis and roasts we'd never have to worry about vampires... and to have a good glass of red wine with your garlic pepper steak...

As for fish... I'm not sure that it would be good for me... I have allergies...

[Giaour]

That's a lot of garlic. Everything else, I think I could do.

[Keith]

The dark chocolate would be the problem for me. I like milk chocolate. I could do it though. The fish is no problem! (Salmon, tuna or swordfish.) I really like garlic, but I agree with Giaour, that is a lot of garlic a day, isn't it? (what is that in ounces?) Five ounces of red wine is perfect for me. After a few sips, I tend to lose my taste for it anyway.

I even eat plenty of the extra ingredients they mentioned at the end of the article. Now, to get potato chips added to that list and I'll live forever!

[nebula]

You have to eat four meals of fish each week

Yeah - save you heart by building up on toxins. . . brilliant idea!

(Fish tend to store toxins in the water, in case you didn't know. )

[Guest iamsoblessed]

cant stomach chocolate..wine will never touch my lips but i can eat fish all day long sooooo...