Katherine Hepburn famously said of her slim physique: “What you see before you is the result of a lifetime of chocolate.”
Beatrice Golomb, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor in the UC San Diego Department of Medicine recently presented findings that may overturn the major objection to regular chocolate consumption: that it makes people fat. The study, published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, shows that adults who eat chocolate on a regular basis are actually thinner than those who do not.
The researchers examined information provided by approximately 1,000 adults from San Diego, and found that those who ate chocolate on more days a week had a lower body mass index than those who ate chocolate less often. This was despite the fact that those who ate chocolate more often did not eat fewer calories (they ate more), nor did they exercise more. Indeed, no differences in behaviors were identified that might explain the finding as a difference in calories taken in, versus calories expended.
“This adds to information from other studies suggesting that the composition of calories, not just the number of them, matters,” says Golomb.
“In the case of chocolate, this is good news.”
—Debra Kain |
