Chocolate Linked to Lower Body Weight
A new study conducted by researchers from the University of California – San Diego linked eating chocolate with weight loss, although its results do not necessarily mean that adding a candy bar to your diet is a surefire way of losing weight.
Researchers said that it was possible that the health benefits that could be derived from chocolate – such as lower blood pressure, reduced cholesterol levels, and decreased body weight – may be due to the presence of antioxidants in it.
Dr. Beatrice Golomb of UC San Diego, lead researcher for the study, said: “People have just assumed that because it comes with calories and it’s typically eaten as a sweet, therefore it would inherently have been, one way, bad.”
The study involved an analysis of data from a survey of 1,000 healthy adults. The study participants, aged from 20 to 85 years old, were asked about their typical eating habits, including how often they consumed chocolate.
The study participants ate chocolate two times a week, and had a body mass index (BMI) of 28, on average. Results of the analysis showed that people who ate chocolate more frequently tend to consume more calories overall. However, they also tend to have lower body weight, despite taking other factors such as age, gender, and amount of exercise into account.
Dr. Golomb shared that there was a five- to seven-pound difference between people who ate five servings of chocolate per week, compared to those who did not eat any chocolate.
Tags: chocolate benefits, chocolate diet, chocolate weight loss, lower body weight due to chocolate
