A very pleasant-to-read study (at least
pleasant for this chocolate lover, but only the real stuff – that is, dark,
dark chocolate - not that fancy-pants milk chocolate stuff that’s more candy
than chocolate) in the Archives of
Internal Medicine has determined that adults who eat chocolate regularly
are actually thinner than adults who shun that terrific treat.
Surprisingly, the researchers also claim
that chocolate eaters did not seem to cut back on the intake of other calories
to compensate for the chocolate eating (why in the world would you want to do
that, anyway? It would spoil the benefits of eating the chocolate as an added
treat, after all, and just make chocolate into another food that you had to
monitor) nor did chocolate-eaters exercise more.
But before you jump on the no-doubt
soon-to-be-hyped Hollywood Chocolate diet, here’s a couple of things to
consider about these results.
Could it be, for example, that people who
eat lots of chocolate somehow know – perhaps from past eating experiences - that
they are not as geared as other people to gaining weight so they also know that
they can they can get away with eating more chocolate than someone who gains
weight very easily?
Or perhaps chocolate eaters are health- and
weight-conscious in other ways that these researchers did not account for?
That said, I’ve always been a strong
believer that you need your treats – well, I do, anyway - and so long as you
practice a bit of discipline (one or two or three bites, not one or two or
three bars), there are only benefits to be had from eating some chocolate
regularly.
