Chocolate: melts in your mouth and melts off your waistline.
Science fiction? Science fact, insists Dr. Beatrice Golomb, an associate professor of medicine at UC San Diego. The surprise is, Golomb said, eating chocolate frequently is linked to lower weight.
Although rich in sugar and fat, chocolate appears to have favorable metabolic effects, Golomb said. Fewer calories end up as fat deposited in the body.
These are the startling conclusions of a paper co-authored by Golomb and UC San Diegos Sabrina Koperski and Halbert L. White, published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine. The study does not prove why chocolate consumption has this effect, but this is still a sweet surprise.
Exercise and leafy greens are typical tactics among dieting Americans, not truffles and Kisses. The idea that eating chocolate, a treat often seen as a guilty pleasure, leads to a slimmer profile seems counter-intuitive.
Which makes this report classic Beatrice Golomb.
Everyone, noted a colleague, has biases and pre-conceived beliefs that chocolate, for instance, is fattening. Its hard to get rid of that and look at the evidence fresh, said Roger Bingham, co-founder and director of the Science Network, a UC San Diego-based broadcaster of science news. Beatrice is one of the people who does that to an extraordinary degree.
As a result, her work receives an extraordinary amount of attention. Hours before Mondays paper appeared, Golomb was fielding calls from the BBC, Reuters, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal. This physician/scientists past work has been featured on 60 Minutes and The Daily Show, Parade magazine and The Times of India. Earlier this month, she made headlines with yet another study, this one linking aggression to diets rich in trans fats, a substance found in french fries, pancake mix, fried chicken and other oily foods.
Shes absolutely fearless and passionate, Bingham said. The only thing we have to do occasionally is slow her down, she talks so fast. I have people on the set say, Can we do that again at 33-and-a-third?
Now 51 or 52 she declined to state her age, but official sources note she was born in 1960 Golomb retains a wunderkinds glow. Talking to her is like parachuting onto an Everest base camp of the mind without oxygen tanks. Youre soon gasping for breath as she races for the summit, chattering merrily about epicatechins and neural networks.
