"Does Chocolate Cause Weight Gain?"
Botanically speaking, seeds are small embryonic plants—
the whole plant stuffed inside a tiny seed,
surrounded by an outer layer
packed with vitamins and minerals and phytochemicals
to protect the seedling plant’s DNA from free radicals.
No wonder they’re so healthy.
And by seeds, using the formal definition,
we’re talking all whole grains—grains are seeds,
you can plant them and they grow.
Nuts are just dry fruits with one or two seeds.
Legumes, beans, peas and lentils, are all seeds too,
as well as cocoa and coffee beans.
So finding health-promoting effects in something like
cocoa or coffee should not be all that surprising.
There is substantial evidence that increased consumption
of all these little plants is associated with
lower risk of cardiovascular disease.
Of course much of chocolate research
is just on how to get consumers to eat more.
While it didn’t seem to matter what kind of music
people were listening to when it came to the
flavor intensity, pleasantness, or texture of a bell pepper,
people liked chocolate more,
when listening to jazz than classical, rock, or hip hop.
Why is this important?
So food industries can integrate specific musical stimuli
in order to maximize their profits.
For example, chocolate companies may incorporate
their chocolate products with jazz-like background music
to increase consumers’ acceptance.
They cite an earlier study that demonstrated
that people rated the oyster consumption more pleasant
in the presence of the "sound of the sea"
than in the presence of the "farmyard noises."
You’d think chocolate would just sell itself,
given that it’s considered the most
commonly craved food in the world.
There is certainly not the same degree of interest
among patients as to whether or not Brussels sprouts
might provide similar cardiovascular protection.
So it’s understandable to hope chocolate provides health benefits.
Meanwhile, despite their known benefits,
Brussels sprouts, languish, unloved, and unconsumed.
One of the potential downsides of chocolate is weight gain.
Though cocoa hardly has any calories,
chocolate is one of the most calorie-dense foods.
Here’s 100 calories of chocolate,
compared to a 100 calories of strawberries, for example.
A few years ago, a study funded by
the National Confectioners Association,
who, among other things, runs the website voteforcandy.com,
reported that Americans who eat chocolate
weigh on average four pounds less than those who don't.
But maybe chocolate-eaters exercise more,
or eat more fruits and vegetables,
they didn’t control for any of that.
The findings of a more recent study, though,
published in the Archives of Internal Medicine,
were less easy to dismiss.
No apparent ties to big chocolate,
reporting that out of a thousand men and women
they studied in San Diego,
those who consumed chocolate more frequently,
did have a lower body mass index, weighed less,
than those who consumed chocolate less often,
even after adjusting for physical activity and diet quality.
It was a cross-sectional study, meaning a snapshot in time,
so you can’t prove cause and effect.
Maybe not eating chocolate leads to being fatter,
or maybe being fatter leads to not eating chocolate.
Maybe people who are overweight are trying to cut down on sweets.
What we need is a study in which people are followed over time,
but there was no such prospective study...
until now.
More than 10,000 people followed for six years,
and a chocolate habit was associated with
long-term weight GAIN, in a dose-response manner,
meaning the greatest weight gain over time was seen in those
with the highest frequency of chocolate intake.
It appears the reason that those cross-sectional studies
found the opposite is that subjects diagnosed with
obesity-related illnesses tended to reduce their intake of things
like chocolate in an attempt to improve their prognosis,
explaining why heavier people may on average eat less chocolate.
And then the strongest type of evidence,
an interventional trial,
where you split people up into two groups,
change half their diets and indeed,
adding four squares of chocolate to peoples’ daily diets
does appear to add a few pounds.
So, what do we tell our patients?
Because many cocoa products are high in sugar and saturated fat,
family physicians should refrain from recommending cocoa.
That’s a little patronizing, though,
I mean you can get the benefits of chocolate
without any sugar or fat by,
for example, adding cocoa powder to a smoothie,
but too often doctors think patients can’t handle the truth.
Case in point.
If your patients inquire, ask them what type of chocolate they prefer.
If they respond with milk chocolate
then it is best to answer that it is not good for them.
If they say dark chocolate, though,
then you can treat them as if they actually have a brain
and lay out the evidence.