A University of Illinois study found that eating two small dark chocolate bars a day can can lower cholesterol and blood pressure.

The dark chocolate and sterols, chemicals naturally occurring in plants, in candy do appear to lower blood pressure and cholesterol, University of Illinois researchers say.

People in the study who ate two of the 100-calorie chocolate bars per day averaged a 2 percent decrease in overall cholesterol readings and more than 5 percent in low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, cholesterol.

That's the so-called "bad" type of cholesterol because of its propensity to build up in arteries feeding the heart and brain.

The bars also yielded a drop in systolic blood pressure, which measures pressure on the arteries, of nearly 6 points, according to the results reported in the Journal of Nutrition this month.

Together, the results indicate that regular consumption of cocoa products like CocoaVia may reduce risk of cardiovascular disease, a class that includes heart attacks and strokes, the researchers wrote.

That's particularly true when combined with a sensible diet overall and regular physical activity .

Researchers assembled a group of 49 people ages 24 to 70, mostly in the middle, with slightly elevated cholesterol, not enough to take medication, and normal blood pressure. Participants were put on an American Heart Association healthy eating plan but encouraged to eat enough to remain weight stable during the study so the results weren't affected by weight loss.

The participants ate CocoaVia bars twice daily within 30 minutes of a meal, when the body typically absorbs dietary cholesterol.

Broken into two groups, they ate bars enhanced with plant sterols for half the eight-week study and then switched to bars without for the other half, and vice versa.

The lowering effect on cholesterol was particularly pronounced when the folks in the study were eating the sterol-enhanced bars.

The effect likely occurs because, while plants don't make cholesterol, plant sterols are chemically similar and they block, when present in the body, the absorption of dietary cholesterol, which then passes out harmlessly rather than accumulating.

Sterols are being employed as a healthy additive in a variety of products these days, such as orange juice, yogurt and margarine.

The blood pressure effect was more of a surprise given that the study's participants had normal blood pressure ranges and, hence, not much to lower.

Erdman and colleagues said the effect is likely related to flavanols in cocoa and dark chocolate. Those nutrients also are present in tea, wine, nuts and certain fruits and vegetables associated with lowering blood pressure, possibly because they have an influence on blood flow-promoting nitric oxide levels in the body.