Eating lots of chocolate helps people stay thin, study finds

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(CBS News) What's the best way to stay thin? A new study finds it's exercising and eating a healthy diet full of - chocolate?

Mindless eating: 8 food goofs that pack on pounds

The study found that people who frequently ate chocolate had a lower body mass index (BMI) than people who didn't.

Is it time to ditch fat-free for fudge?

For the study, published in the March 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers examined more than 1,000 healthy men and women who were free of heart disease, diabetes and cholesterol problems. They were all enrolled in another study that measured the effects of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, but for this study researchers assigned them questionnaires that gauged how often participants chowed down on chocolate.

The researchers found that the participants - who were an average age of 57 - ate chocolate for an average of twice of week and exercised roughly 3.5 times per week. But the more frequent chocolate-eaters had smaller BMIs, a ratio of height and weight that's used to measure obesity.

What explains the effect? Even though chocolate can be loaded with calories, it's full of antioxidants and other ingredients that may promote weight loss, the researchers said.

"I was pretty happy with this news myself," study author Dr. Beatrice Golomb, associate professor of medicine at the University of California-San Diego, told USA Today. "Findings show the composition of calories, not just the number of them, matters for determining ultimate weight."

Does that mean all diet regimens should include a daily chocolate bar? The researchers say it's too soon to tell.

"Our findings - that more frequent chocolate intake is linked to lower BMI - are intriguing," the authors wrote. However, "It is not a siren call to go out and eat 20 pounds of chocolate a day," Golomb told HealthDay.

This isn't the first study to suggest a daily dose of chocolate can do the body good. Last summer, a study of more than 100,000 people found those who ate the most chocolate were 39 percent less likely to get heart disease and 29 percent less likely to have a stroke, HealthPop reported. Months later a 10-year study of 33,000 women found a 30 percent reduced risk of stroke among chocaholics.

But experts warn not all chocolate is created equal, and some could contain lots of sugar and calories, which could lead to other health issues if consumed daily.

"I would not want people reading this to think that all [they] need to do to lose weight is eat more chocolate," Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale Prevention Research Center in New Haven, Conn., told WebMD. "That would be a huge mistake." Katz suggests dark chocolate, because of its bitter flavor,  may suppress appetite whereas sweet chocolate may stimulate it.

The Mayo Clinic has more on chocolate.

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Mindless eating: 8 food goofs that pack on pounds

[Wigglesworth_1]

I eat a bag of Raisinettes every week.

[JimTreacher]

You should ditch fat-free anyway. Fat-free is what's making everybody fat.

[Zann-Zel]

Women everywhere are smiling! : )

[tired170]

I have worked in the chocolate industry for 24 years and throughout that period of time, I have known people who consume chocolate on a daily basis and are quite thin. Some of our taste panels are comprised of various employees who taste the different batches of chocolate, usually 5-6, each day and they are in great shape.

Was it the chocolate that made them that way? Probably not, but when combined with a regime of healthy eating and exercise, it hasn't hurt them a bit.

Its fine to eat chocolate daily but I would use these guidelines
1. Eat 10-15 grams of a 65% dark chocolate. 65% means the percentage of cocoa solids with 35% sugar content. Its not too bitter at that percentage and still allows for sweetness to creep through as well as various flavor notes that are inherent in chocolate

2. Eat chocolate made from beans that have not been alkalized ( dutched ). This suggestion is made purely from the standpoint of flavor as the natural beans allow for the acidity / flavor of chocolate to show itself. Along those lines, eat chocolate that was made from origin beans, meaning beans from one country or growing region. Again, its a flavor thing and you can compare how chocolate made from the same beans, yet from different regions, differ in flavor.

3. Experiment with various dark chocolates until you find one whose flavor lingers for 3-4 minutes after you are finished with it. Believe me when I tell you that when you find that chocolate, you have found a good one and a small amount will take you a long way and you will savor it.

4. Don't put chocolate into your mouth and start chomping away at it. We all know how to eat chocolate but tasting it is another matter. Allow it to partially melt or at least soften in your mouth and then start chewing. The flavors will impart on your palate and you will enjoy it much more. This serves two purposes - 1. You are taking your time to taste and enjoy chocolate rather than stuffing it into your mouth and chewing away. 2. By taking your time, you aren't as inclined to eat as much in one sitting.

[lorne46]

Chocolate and chocolate milk, is among other things, for some people -- a laxative. That's why medicinal laxatives are often coated with it. So it is not surprising that it can help keep you regular and help keep the weight down.

[tired170]

Wrong..medicinal laxatives, Ex-Lax, are coated with a chocolate "flavored" coating, referred to as a compound coating. That means it has cocoa and palm kernel oil instead of chocolate liquor and cocoa butter. There is a huge difference, both in the fat system and the way your body processes those fats.

That said, medicinal laxatives are coated with those items to make them palatable so that they mask the active ingredient potassium, which makes your bowels move,not the chocolate. Read the labels and put two and two together

[gnimelf1968]

I have found that when I started eating the dark chocolate 70% and above, that it was extremely difficult to eat very much since it's so bitter. Once I got used to it I could eat a small square occassionally. Now I can't stand to eat milk chocolate anymore. It's way too sweet.

[hlmelsaid]

full of antioxidants.

[jsf14]

Why not ask the people in such studies what kind of chocolate they ate: milk, dark, 75% cacao, and so on?

[DookiFried]

Ha! Well, my 400lbs girlfriend must be hiding BigMacs inside those bonbons.

[StopTheSpending]

Bull.