Calories in chocolate are special, they don’t add up to fat

Easter is chocolate season. If you’re feeling racked with guilt and worried that mouthfuls of bunny ears and tails, are going to lead to you sporting an extra large “tail”, then this research report is going to make your day.

Regular chocolate eaters are thinner !

Yup, banishing chocolate from your life, is not a requirement to be a skinny bean pole.

Temperance and the temptor

Don’t get all excited – the research report is not a licence to pig out on chocolate, the message is a little chocolate is not all bad, the reason – chocolate calories are SPECIAL.

The basis of weight management hinges more-or-less on the idea that calories in, need to be equal to calories out. Now, we already know all calories are not created equal – carbs tend to punch above their calorie count, while fats, strike out – one reason is because they make you feel fuller sooner.

Chocolate sits on the fence – it is primarily fat, with a hefty dose of sugar.

The chocolate count

Researchers in California speculated that modest regular chocolate consumption would generate a good return on investment.

To test out the idea, they enlisted the services of 1000 adult men and women living in the San Diego area. They started out by calculating their volunteers BMI. They then compared this number with their chocolate munching behaviours.

Chocolate eaters were thinner

When they crunched the numbers, they discovered what is almost unthinkable – those people eating more chocolate are actually thinner, than those skipping out on this hedonistic luxury.

Look lets not kid anybody, the difference between the chocolate eaters and those going without was pretty small, but it was significant. Being significant is scientific talk for saying – it probably is really different and didn’t just happen by chance.

Chocolate guilt effect

Studies like this, epidemiological studies are always fraught with “problems”, because it really is very difficult to compare two groups of people based on just one thing. So to try make the study more scientific, the research team tried to address some of the “problems”.

First problem, do chocolate eaters exercise more ? They might, most of us are conditioned to believe chocolate packs on the pounds, so it is conceivably possible, adults who feel eating chocolate should be part of their routine, might compensate by gyming more. In this group of chocolate eaters, exercise was not bigger than in the group of folks not doing chocolate.

The next possibility is the chocolate eaters, racked by guilt at their indulgence, cut out other things to keep the calorie counts lower overall. Again, when the numbers were crunched, there did not seem to be a difference in overall calorie counts between the two groups. In fact, most chocolate eaters actually managed to eat more calories.

Calories are definitely not equal

Specifically chocolate calories are not equal, in fact, chocolate calories have some kind of magic.

So, make sure the Easter bunny doesn’t skip you this Easter.

Health gurus are always telling you to cut nice things out of your life, if you like sweet things, chocolate may just be the one way you can have your “cake” and eat it. Dark is probably better than milk chocolate.

PS. Just make sure you’re listening to the “I AM FULL” signals.

Association Between More Frequent Chocolate Consumption and Lower Body Mass Index. Archives of Internal Medicine, 2012; 172 (6): 519 B. A. Golomb, S. Koperski, H. L. White.