UK experts have developed a chocolate bar that can help save your life. To fend off heart disease, new research recommends eating this cocoa-rich chocolate every day. Cocoa contains high levels of antioxidants called flavenoids, but when you turn it into chocolate these compounds can be destroyed, and most of the beneficial effects are lost.

The team at the University of East Anglia have employed Belgian experts to create a chocolate bar that retains higher levels of these special antioxidants. They’ve also added soy to boost its health effects even further.

Trials hope to discover whether the bar can help protect diabetic women against heart damage associated with the condition. They are now recruiting 150 post-menopausal women for the research programme.

Aedin Cassidy, lead researcher and professor of diet and health at the university, said: “Despite post-menopausal women being at a similar risk to men for developing cardiovascular disease, to date they are under-represented in clinical trials.

“We hope to show that adding flavonoids to their diets will provide additional protection from heart disease and give women the opportunity to take more control over reducing their risk of heart disease in the future.”

Coronary heart disease is UK’s biggest killer, claiming more than 110,000 lives in England alone each year. Also, more than 1.4 million people suffer from angina while 275,000 have a heart attack.

For women, the risk of heart disease increases dramatically after the menopause. And for women with type-2 diabetes, this risk jumps three and a half times. Last year, a small study by the chocolate giant Mars claimed that eating cocoa-rich chocolate increased blood flow to parts of the brain.

So how does it work? It’s simply that flavonoids boost the production of nitric oxide in blood vessels, lowering blood pressure and improving blood flow.

But not all chocolate is good… it must be the stuff that’s rich in cocoa. Dark chocolate contains on average 70 per cent, milk chocolate is made from 30 to 40 per cent and white chocolate contains just cocoa butter. If you want to give it a try, look out for bars that contain more than 80% cocoa.

Dr Ketan Dhatariya, one of the researchers and a consultant in diabetes at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, said: “The hypothesis of this exciting study is that compounds found in cocoa and soy may improve the level of protection against heart disease over and above that provided by conventional drugs. If the trial confirms this, it could have a far-reaching impact on the advice we give to post-menopausal women who have type-2 diabetes.”

But the diabetes charities funding the study have advised women not to rush out and buy normal chocolate as it would not have the same effect.

Dr Iain Frame, director of research at Diabetes UK, said: “We certainly don’t advise people to start eating a lot of chocolate as it’s very high in sugar and fat.

“We would always recommend that people with diabetes eat a diet low in fat, salt and sugar with plenty of fruit and vegetables.

“A successful outcome of this research would hopefully mean being able to offer people at high risk better protection over and above that provided by conventional drugs.”