Sign me up!

Here's one study I wouldn't mind participating in.

Researchers at the University of East Anglia in the U. K. are recruiting women to eat a bar of chocolate a day for a year. Mounds of Yorkie Bars (a particular favourite of HP but sadly unavailable in Australia) comes to mind. Sounds like heaven, no?

The aim of the study is to examine whether eating chocolate can reduce the risk of heart disease.

Unfortunately, I'm not eligible. Participants must be post-menopausal and have been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.

The second sting, the chocolate provided is not your standard Dairy Milk/Hersheys/Lindt/ insert your own particular favourite here. The chocolate has been loaded with extra flavonoids by the addition of soy. Flavonoids are a compound found in cocoa, which is suspected to be beneficial to the heart.

An important study as the researchers state that deaths due to heart disease among women increase rapidly after the menopause and having type 2 diabetes increases this risk by a further three-and-a-half times.

Don't take this as a carte-blanche to eat chocolate though. The researchers point out chocolate is still high in sugar and fat.

Why do scientists have to be such spoilsports?

Children and Chocolate

Anyone who visits this blog on a regular basis knows it's only a matter of time before another post about chocolate pops up. A self-confessed chocoholic, it's little wonder that the following study caught my attention.

A study by Macquarie University has examined the effects of chocolate on the behaviour of preschool children in response to the popularly held belief that consumption of chocolate can lead normally, well-behaved children to become restless, inattentive, disobedient and aggressive.

Pre-schoolers were fed either chocolate or dried fruit and then observed while they listened to a story. Blind raters scored the children's behaviours according to six objective measures (wriggling, talking, looking away from the storyteller, standing up, fidgeting, aggressive behaviour) and two subjective measures based on the general level of movement and concentration.

The good news is that there no difference in behaviours were found between the group that ate chocolate and the group eating the dried fruit. The bad news? I guess I have no reason not to hand over that Freddo Frog.

Can I sign up for the adult study maybe?

Resource:
Ingram, M., & Rapee, R. M. (2006). The effect of chocolate on the behaviour of preschool children. Behaviour Change, 23, 73-81.

Stress & Chocolate

The pile of surveys waiting on my desk here is getting larger. The number of variables to be entered into a stats package is ridiculous. Even thinking about what I'm going to do with this data is terrifying. I freely admit to having gone to the wrong room completely when the maths brains were given out. The deadline for thesis presentation is looming. It's a stressful situation but I've decided today I'm going to make a real attack on it all.

Yes, I will....After I've taken care of the chocolate bar sitting conveniently on top of the pile.

They say the proof of the pudding is in the eating and so it's timely that my behaviour demonstrates a response commonly seen in women when faced with stressful situations.

A study by the University of Leeds shows women to be at greater risk from unhealthy behaviours in such situations. Leading researcher Dr. Daryl O'Connor says that stress can disrupt normal eating habits and create a tendency towards snacking, particularly on high fat and high sugar items. Stress can also increase other unhealthy behaviours including increased caffeine consumption, smoking and the neglect of exercise.

The study reveals that it is mental rather than physical stressors that are important. Physical stresses are likely to make us eat less. Additionally, we are not all equally at risk. Those most likely to be follow this pattern are "emotional eaters" (who, me?), who seek to avoid the negative feelings of arousal and anxiety associated with stress by turning to food.

The relationship between stress and food is not really surprising. Stress has been shown to increase the release of a number of hormones, in particular cortisol, which can lead to food cravings. When cortisol levels become elevated in response to constant stress, cravings for the fuels that feed the the stress response, fats and carbohydrates, occur.

A survey undertaken by the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) found that after September 11, stress eating was common, with about 20 percent of people eating more comfort foods. Sugar cravings also rose, with 19 percent saying they were eating more sweet, sugary foods.

Nonetheless, the study is important because it reinforces the potential harmful effects of stress on maintaining a balanced diet, when this has been shown to be important to reduce cardiovascular health risk.

So if, like me, you're prone to stress-related eating, try some of the following strategies:

Make sure you continue to eat regularly. Don't wait until 'starvation' hits and you find it harder to exercise control over what and how much you eat.

Remove temptation from your environment.

Try and avoid the urge to snack by deferring eating for 15-3o minutes. The urge to snack may pass.

Don't eat while occupied by a task. When we don't focus on what we're eating, we're less likely to notice signs that our appetite has been sated.

Now, where's that chocolate bar?

Resources

ESRC press release

Chocoholics rejoice!

I previously discussed chocolate and its potential for improving mood in the Mood Food post. Chocolate could, potentially, boost a number of feel good chemicals in the brain. All good until you take into account the quantity you would need to eat to get anything more than a placebo response.

Of course, the health benefits of dark chocolate have been talked about for some time. Little consolation for milk chocolate lovers like myself.

So I was heartened today to read of the cognitive performing boosting properties of milk chocolate. The study by Dr. Bryan Raudenbush, from Wheeling Jesuit University in the U.S. studied the effects of various chocolate types on brain power. Volunteers consumed either milk chocolate, dark chocolate, carob or nothing before completing in a series of cognitive tests.

Dr. Raudenbush reported that performance on verbal and visual memory tests were higher for the milk chocolate consumers than other groups. Groups who consumed either milk or dark chocolate showed improved impulse controls and reaction times.

The magical properties of chocolate?

Sigh. Probably not. The explanation put forward for the enhanced cognitive results relates to the fact that chocolate raises blood glucose which then increases blood flow to the brain. Similar results should therefore be generated by foods that affect glucose metabolism in a similar way.

Still, who wouldn't sign up for a repeat study?

Dr. Rosenbush will be presenting his findings at a conference later this year.

For the full press release, read Chocolate may boost brain power