Eating chocolate for breakfast can help you lose weight, scientists say

Milk chocolate might not be the first food you think of when deciding to diet with its reputation for being high in sugar, fat, and calories.

But starting your day with chocolate could actually have “unexpected benefits” in helping your body burn fat, scientists have found.

Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, USA, gave 19 postmenopausal women 100 grams of milk chocolate within an hour of waking up and an hour before falling asleep for two weeks.

The results revealed that consuming chocolate made no difference in participants’ weight and in fact helped with weight loss.

He said eating chocolate in the morning can actually help burn fat and lower blood glucose levels.

This may be due to flavanols, beneficial chemicals naturally found in cocoa that increase fat oxidation.

While eating chocolate at night helped regulate sleep patterns and change metabolism.

During the trial, participants were allowed to eat “any other food”, including sugary treats, outside of their milk chocolate diet.

Frank AJL Scheer, a neuroscientist specializing in the division of sleep and circadian disorders, said: “Having chocolate in the morning or evening / night leads to differential effects on hunger and appetite, substrate oxidation, fasting blood sugar, microbiota (composition and function), and sleep and temperature rhythms.

“Our results show that not only ‘what’ but also ‘when’ we eat can impact physiological mechanisms involved in the regulation of body weight.”

The researchers added: “The results show that women were less hungry when they ate chocolate and craved less for sweets than without chocolate, especially when they took chocolate in the evening / at night.

“Additionally, daily cortisol levels were lower when eating chocolate in the morning than in the evening / night.”

However, chocolate should always be consumed in moderation as part of a balanced diet.

The new study, published in The FASEB Journal, follows other recent research on the potential benefits of consuming cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate.

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