Post-Menopausal to Binge on Morning Chocolate to Cut Weight, Study Suggests
Research found that the timing of eating a chocolate significantly impacted energy balance and body weight.
Ditching the age-old belief that linked milk chocolate to high fat, sugar, and calorie intake, post-menopausal women who binge on chocolates the first thing in the morning are more likely to experience reverse effects, a new study has suggested.
Researchers at the Brigham and University of Murcia in Spain clarified that it was the timing of eating the chocolate that differentially affected energy balance and impacted body weight in the study participants.
For the purpose of the study, researchers looked at 19 post-menopausal women aged around 52 years. Each participant was directed to consume 100 g of milk chocolate either first thing in the morning (within one hour of waking up) or at night (within one hour before bedtime). The findings were compared to women who did not consume chocolates.
The findings of the study revealed that while morning chocolate eaters consumed almost 300 calories less, the evening chocolate eaters had almost 150 less in their daily diet.
Although this “did not fully compensate for the extra energy contribution of chocolate, which added 542 calories every day, our volunteers did not gain weight despite increasing caloric intake,” said study author Dr. Frank Scheer, from Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
The morning chocolate eaters had their waist circumference reduced by 1.7 percent and blood sugar levels dropped by 4.4 percent as compared to other counterparts.
“Our findings highlight not only ‘what’ but also ‘when’ we eat can impact physiological mechanisms involved in the regulation of body weight,” Scheer concluded. The findings of the study are published in The FASEB Journal.
