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Harriet Brewis wrote this article in Indy100:
Every foodie’s dream could be about to come true thanks to a new study on the health benefits of chocolate.
It turns out that eating the treat as the first meal of the day could help you burn fat, according to researchers in the United States.
The team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston gave 19 postmenopausal women 100 g of milk chocolate within an hour of waking up, or an hour before falling asleep, every day for two weeks.
Rather than stacking pounds as you might expect, they found that consuming high amounts of chocolate during the morning hours could help burn fat and lower blood sugar.
Meanwhile, consuming it at night helped regulate participants’ sleep patterns and alter their metabolism.
“Our results underscore that not only ‘what’ but also ‘when’ we eat can impact physiological mechanisms involved in regulating body weight,” said Frank AJL Scheer, professor at Harvard Medical School, who helped to lead the study.
“Our volunteers did not gain weight despite the increased calorie intake,” added co-author Marta Garaulet of Brigham Hospital.
During the 14-day trial, participants were allowed to eat “any other food” and were not limited to a particular diet.
Scheer explained that he and his colleagues “hypothesized that having a food high in energy and sugar such as chocolate for a short-term period of two weeks” can affect energy balance, weight distribution. and bacteria in the gut.
Indeed, their results suggest that chocolate consumption may decrease hunger and desire for sweets and reduce energy intake.
Additionally, daily levels of the stress hormone cortisol were lower when eating chocolate in the morning.
The key to the medicinal properties of chocolate are the chemicals in cocoa called flavanols. They are believed to increase fat oxidation and have been linked to a reduced risk of heart attack, stroke, and death from cardiovascular disease.
Having said that, don’t get too excited.
Before you go get the chocolate at 7:00 am tomorrow, remember the old mantra: “Everything in moderation”.
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