Healthwatch: Study finds people eating chocolate on a regular basis weigh less

A new study finds people who ate chocolate a few times a week or more weighed less than those who barely indulged. Researchers at the University of California San Diego studied 1,000 adults ranging in ages from 20 to 85 and found that those who ate chocolate more frequently had a lower Body Mass Index or BMI.

“Chocolate has been found to have many other metabolic benefits, benefits to things like blood pressure and cholesterol that actually coorelate with body mass index,” says Dr. Beatrice Golomb, Associate professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego.

Oddly, the chocolate lovers weren’t any more likely to exercise or eat fruits and vegetables, both of which affect body weight, compared with the non-chocolate eaters in the study. But Dr. Jan McBarron of Georgia Bariatrics says don’t reach for a handful of candy bars just yet.

“This has made the news because this is what people want to hear. People want to hear that eat chocolate and you’ll get thin, well doesn’t that sound great,” says Dr. McBarron.

But the reality says Dr. McBarron is eating chocolate everyday stimulates your appetite so you end up eating everything else. And she says from a pure health standpoint, it just isn’t a good idea to start loading up on chocolate.

“It has everything to do with the saturated fat and sugar. We know that if you increase your saturated fat and the sugar in the diet, you’re increasing your risk of cancer, hardening of the arteries, premature death and diabetes.”

It’s important to note the men and women in the study had no diabetes, heart disease or cholesterol problems.

“It is important to note that but it’s also important to note that they didn’t have it yet.”

Dr. McBarron adds the study does not validate for Americans that they can eat chocolate and be thin.

“It was an evaluation of self reported eating habits so again you depend on people basically telling you the truth about what they’re eating and not eating and I will tell you this, when I was 200 pounds I didn’t tell the truth on everything I ate when I wrote it down.”

Previous studies show antioxidants in *dark chocolate can be good for the heart. Dr. McBarron says if you want to snack on something, make it fruit, it’s better for you. McBarron is not totally against chocolate. She says a good rule to follow is 80 percent of the time make wise food choices to keep you healthy and twenty percent of the time treat yourself to something like chocolate.

Study finds people who ate more chocolate weighed less.

Name: CHUA SOOK YEE

Student ID: SC-KL-00032004

Intake: DIMC April’10

Subject: Journalism