For
some little while now we have heard that eating chocolate has some longevity
benefits. That is devouring it in small quantities and not throwing discretion
to the winds and downing candy bars with a little chocolate covering. But now
there is additional good news.
Eating
small amounts of chocolate correlated nicely with lower than average body mass
indices of almost one thousand residents of San Diego, CA. The study was
carried out by Golomb et al and reported in yesterday’s issue of the Archives of Internal
Medicine (2) and outlined by Smith (1).
The
age range of the chocolate munchers was from 20 to 85 and we are talking dark
chocolate too, so it’s the good stuff. The stats were that on average for two
days a week they indulged there craving, but also they were checked out for
mood and regular exercise attainment on 3.6 days each week the got their heart
pounding for at least 20 minutes.
The
result of the study after careful scrutiny was that for each day per week of
regular indulgence, the participant was 0.2 BMI points lower than the chocolate
eschwers. Thus for the average person of 5’ 10’’ they would be about seven or
so pounds lighter if they munched away Monday through Friday.
However,
before we all rush out to the high quality chocolate shops, it may be worth
noting that the study was a serendipity spin-off from a study of the effects of
taking statins and looking for non-cardiac effects.
What
this means, of course, is though a nice correlation was found, the study couldn’t
determine a causal link, so I think that I will have to try it out and see if a
little dark chocolate per day drops my weight. Now I will have to stress over
what is the right little amount.
- http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/DietNutrition/31848
- http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/172/6/519
