Dark Chocolate and Metabolic Syndrome; Do Polyphenols All that Matter

he prevalence of cardiovascular diseases isconsiderably high among individuals withmetabolic syndrome (MetS). Establishment ofdietary interventions that prevent the developmentof cardiovascular risk factors in this high-riskgroup seems crucial. With this regard, studyconducted by Mozaffari-Khosravi & colleagues(Mozaffari-Khosravi et al., 2016) is welcomed.The researchers showed that daily consumption oftwo different servings of dark chocolate (DC) foreight weeks had no beneficial effect on bloodpressure and oxidative stress in patients withMetS. They compared their findings with otherstudies based on differences in servings of DCsand their polyphenolic content.Current evidences on the anti-inflammatory andantihypertensive properties of DC mainly focus onits polyphenolic content. Although the possiblerole of magnesium which is found in high amountsin DC (327 mg/100g DC) was missed in thepresent study as well as most of the previousstudies. An inverse correlation was reportedbetween dietary magnesium intakes with risk ofMetS (Sarrafzadegan et al., 2016). Moreover,previous clinical trials have shown favorableeffects of magnesium supplementation on bloodpressure which might be related to its role inreducing systemic inflammation, improvingglycemic status, and vasorelaxation (Rodriguez-Moran and Guerrero-Romero, 2014, Rosanoff andPlesset, 2013).