Hey... this is for all our chocolate fans. If you needed an excuse to eat chocolate before, you won't need one now!

Here's why: a new study suggests that eating a small piece of chocolate daily may reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke.

The people in this study ate the equivalent of a 3.5 ounce square of chocolate every day... that's the size of two small chocolate bars. The result was a 39-percent lower risk of heart attack or stroke compared to people who ate much less chocolate. That's just amazing!

The study followed 19-thousand adults for 10 years. The participants received medical checkups when the study began and every two to three years filled out questionnaires about how much and how often they ate chocolate.

By the end of the study, researchers found that people who ate the most chocolate, an average of only a quarter ounce a day, that's less than 2 Hershey's kisses, had a 27-percent lower risk of heart attack.

And they had a 48-percent lower risk of stroke than people who ate the least amount of chocolate, an average of 0.06 ounces a day. That's astounding. Even their blood pressure was lower by comparison.

Researchers say the benefits come from the high flavanol content of cocoa. Flavanols are an antioxidant that seem to increase the amount of nitric oxide produced by cells that line the inner wall of blood vessels.

Nitric oxide is a gas that, once released, causes the smooth muscle cells of the blood vessels to relax and widen; this may contribute to lower blood pressure. Nitric oxide also improves platelet function, making the blood less sticky.

Experts believe previous research along with this latest study show a daily dose of chocolate is healthy for the heart — some thing you chocolate lovers may be tempted to say you knew all along.