{"id":663,"date":"2014-06-03T07:00:26","date_gmt":"2014-06-03T11:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chaneyhealth.com\/healthtips\/?p=663"},"modified":"2014-05-11T21:48:32","modified_gmt":"2014-05-12T01:48:32","slug":"can-chocolate-help-you-lose-weight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chaneyhealth.com\/healthtips\/can-chocolate-help-you-lose-weight\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Chocolate Help You Lose Weight?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Candy a Day Keeps The Weight Away?<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

Author: Dr. Stephen Chaney<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"chocolate\"<\/a>Sometimes you come across news that just seems too good to be true. The recent headlines saying that you can lose weight just by eating chocolate are a perfect example. Your first reaction when you heard that was probably \u201cSure, when pigs fly!\u201d<\/p>\n

But, it\u2019s such an enticing idea \u2013 one might even say a deliciously enticing idea. And, in today\u2019s world enticing ideas like this quickly gain a life of their own. Two popular books have been written on the subject. Chocolate diet plans are springing up right and left. A quick scan of the internet even revealed a web site saying that by investing a mere $1,250 in a training course you could become a \u201cCertified Chocolate Weight Loss Coach\u201d earning $50,000\/year.<\/p>\n

If you like chocolate as much as most people you are probably wondering could it just possibly be true?<\/p>\n

Can Eating Chocolate Help You Lose Weight?<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

The idea that chocolate could help you lose weight does have some support. There are actually three published clinical studies suggesting that chocolate consumption is associated with lower weight (European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 62: 247-253, 2008; Nutrition Research, 31: 122-130, 2011; Archives of Internal Medicine, 172: 519-521, 2012).<\/p>\n

While that sounds pretty impressive, they were all cross-sectional studies. That means they looked at a cross section of the population and compared chocolate intake with BMI (a measure of obesity). Cross sectional studies have a couple of very important limitations:<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cross sectional studies merely measure associations. They don\u2019t prove cause and effect. Was it the chocolate that caused the lower weight, or was it something else that those populations were doing? We don\u2019t really know.<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cross sectional studies don\u2019t tell us why an association occurs. In many ways this is the old chicken and egg conundrum. Which comes first? In this case the question is whether the people in the studies became obese because they ate less chocolate \u2013 or did they eat less chocolate because they were obese and were trying to control their calories? Again, we have no way of knowing.<\/p>\n

If Pigs Could Only Fly<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

\"If<\/a>Chocolate is relatively rich in fat and high in calories. It\u2019s not your typical diet food. On the surface it seems fairly implausible that eating chocolate could actually help you lose weight.<\/p>\n

Scientists love to poke holes in implausible hypotheses, so it is no surprise that a recent study (PLOS ONE, 8(8) e70271) has poked some huge holes in the \u201cchocolate causes weight loss\u201d hypothesis.<\/p>\n

This study analyzed data from over 12,000 participants in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Community (ARIC) Study. This was also a cross sectional study, but it was a prospective cross sectional study (That\u2019s just a fancy scientific term which means that the study followed a cross section of the population over time, rather than just asking what that population group looked like at a single time point).<\/p>\n

The authors of the study assessed frequency of chocolate intake and weight for each individual in the study at two separate time points 6 years apart. The results were very interesting:<\/p>\n