Some like it dark
Researchers this week reported findings from an experiment most of us would happily volunteer for—a study comparing dark chocolate and milk chocolate.
It’s well known that substances in cocoa beans help keep blood pressure in check and may have potent antioxidant effects. The darker the chocolate, the more of these substances (and the less sugar) it contains.
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen set out to discover whether darker chocolate is also more filling than milk chocolate.
The lucky 16 volunteers they recruited tested dark chocolate and milk chocolate on separate occasions. After fasting for 12 hours, they were given 100 grams of chocolate—the equivalent of a very generous bar. During the following five hours, the research subjects kept track of how hungry (or full) they felt, and what sorts of foods they had a hankering for.
Two and a half hours after eating the chocolate, they were also offered pizza to test their appetites.
After feasting on dark chocolate, the volunteers consumed 15 percent fewer calories than after eating milk chocolate. They also reported that the dark chocolate seemed to quench their appetite for sweet, salty or fatty foods.
These results fall in line with other studies suggesting that nutrient-rich foods such as nuts or eggs are more satiating than high-calorie, low-nutrient foods (sugary snacks, for instance, or highly-refined breads). Some researchers theorize that the abundance of nutrient-poor foods in the average diet may be one reason so many Americans are too fat. If a meal doesn’t provide all the nutrition we need, we go on eating and eating.
Help yourself to a small square of dark chocolate for a snack or dessert, the new findings suggest, and you could find yourself consuming fewer calories without even thinking about it.
Of course the Copenhagen study is relatively small. A larger trial, and one that studied people consuming chocolate over a longer period–say a year or more–would offer even more convincing evidence.
I volunteer.
Tags: dark chocolate, milk chocolate, satiety, weight loss
As a practitioner of this dark art for several decades, I can add that this premise feels right to me, though I tend to prefer, for eating if not always for cooking,chocolate in the 68-to-76% pure cocoa range; darker is not always better. Like most people, I suspect, I love it when research confirms my instincts or experience (even though my rational brain understands that likely this is specious thinking). So I daily dip into the little box of dark elixer on my desk.
The antioxidants in dark chocolate are neutralized by milk, thus milk chocolate is lacking them. So, save the glass of milk for the brownies and have a cup of good coffee with your dark chocolate.
And as all chocolate addicts know, white chocolate is not really chocolate at all, and we don’t care what it is. And now…back to my desk.
Great blog, Mr. Jaret. It’s at the top of my favorites list.
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