At the risk of turning this into a food blog (it’s my third foodie post in a row), I can’t resist talking about a recent study from Mr. F’s previous employer, Nestle. According to Nestle researcher Sunil Kochhar, people who crave a daily chocolate fix have a different set of gut bacteria than people who don’t.
Your next question might be….there are actually people who don’t crave chocolate? Well, I’m one of them, but my reasons probably have nothing to do with bacteria and a lot to do with taste aversion. When Mr. F worked for Nestle, we somehow ended up with quite a bit of chocolate around the house. I am living testament to the fact that one can, in fact, overindulge in chocolate. I do like the occasional chocolate, especially in baked goods like our family’s favorite Black Forest Cake pictured above, but my preference runs to white chocolate, which wasn’t around much during the formation of my taste aversion.
Anyway, back to bacteria. It took the Nestle researchers a year to find 11 people who didn’t crave chocolate. The chocolate lovers turned out to be different in a number of ways, including lower levels of “bad” cholesterol or LDL. Hey, there’s a good excuse for eating chocolate!
The researchers argue that their results indicate a predisposition to eating chocolate. Without seeing their original study (due out Friday), it’s hard to tell how they back up this claim. It looks more like a correlation to me. True, we could be predisposed to eat certain things (Mr. F is quite fond of the 72 ounce steak at the Big Texan in Amarillo, but I’ll pass on that). On the other hand, I suspect that eating chocolate on a daily basis could have an impact on one’s bacteria (among other things).
The researchers only observed their participants over 5 days, during which time they either ate chocolate or a placebo (and what would that be????). Seems to me that 5 days isn’t very long in the world of readjusting your bacteria. Dieters need about a year before their bacterial populations approach the distributions of people with healthy weight.
Still, I have to admit that it’s probably a lot of fun to do research on chocolate eating….
9 Comments
c.busso · October 15, 2007 at 10:30 pm
I’m interested to read about this study because it doesn’t seem like it was set up well. Also, I identify with not having chocolate cravings while my room mate constantly does. I’m wondering if there is a little bias in this study because it was done by a chocolate company and it took them a year to find 11 people that don’t crave chocolate. Seems a little fishy to me!
Laura Freberg · October 16, 2007 at 11:44 am
The study also used all men. In interviews, the lead author stated that they intend to include women in subsequent studies. The reason they didn’t include women this time is that hormonal fluctuations may have affected the results. Hmmmmm.
TNguyen · October 16, 2007 at 7:37 pm
I’ve actually heard about this research! I wonder, if it has to be chocolate lovers who have lower levels of LDL because I tend to crave white chocolate but not as much as I crave Hot Cheetos!! I’ve also read that the research didn’t determine whether it was a specific bacteria that caused chocolate cravings or whether it was the dieting that changed the bacteria which caused the craving. Hmm…
Dianawagen · October 17, 2007 at 10:44 am
I was acyually just talking to somone about chocolate. I heard it is really hard to digest and that my friends uncle who had many stomach issues including a bag thing ate alot of cholcolate and got really sick. I remember a parent of a little preschooler telling me chocolate is good for you and that she fed her little preschooler dark cocolate before school all the time, this poor kid had so many behavior problems! I suspect some of it had to do with the choclate imagine his little tummy trying to break it down! It seems like a harsh breakfast even for an adult.
kbushman · October 17, 2007 at 5:28 pm
Well I find this research interesting, being a total chocolate fanatic myself. I have been a chocolate/sweets lover since I was born it feels like, and I don’t know if I buy into that it’s from a bacteria. I was actually talking to my mom about this and she said that she ate massive amounts of chocolate, candy, cookies (esp. oreos!) and any other sweet thing you can think of while she was pregnant with me. Call me crazy but I think that that might have some what predisposed me to what I call my permanent chocolate craving. Who knows though!
KatyL · October 24, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Eating chocolate especially dark chocolate is actually good for you!! Dark chocolate has flavonoids in it which is an antioxidant. Of coarse we need to eat everything in moderation but it’s nice to know such a yummy treat is actually good for us.Just to let you ya know if you already don’t, white chocolate actually is not chocolate it has to have a percentage of cocoa to be considered chocolate, and white chocolate does not.
Laura Freberg · October 28, 2007 at 9:20 am
kbushman is correct. There is some very cool research linking the mother’s diet to her baby’s preferences. See work by J.A. Mennella and colleagues (2001), Pediatrics, 107, E88. On the other hand, based on personal experience, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that a mother’s food preference is also affected by the fetus she is carrying. When I was pregnant with my second daughter, I craved steak (unusual for me), and she turned out to be my 6 foot tall world ranked shot putter (who loves steak). I have no data to support this, but it would be an interesting line of research.
cat tran · October 29, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Chocolate cravings and consumption is definetly an interesting research topic…chocolate seems to be a drug for some people, it’s more than just having a sweet tooth, but it’s a necessity to their everyday life! Not with me, (however, I do enjoy chocolate, especially dark chocolate or cakes), but I would rather go for something salty.
That’s funny to me that this study used only men because next to the “diamonds are a girl’s best friend”, I’d say chocolate is the girl’s other best friend. If guys want to make some quick female friends, he should probably just have have a chocolate bar on him and he’ll be good to go! Another thing about chocolate cravings…I wonder if people who aren’t exposed to chocolate growing up are less inclined to have a craving for it?
Psychiatry » Blog Archives » Chocolate cravings from bacteria? · October 17, 2007 at 1:33 am
[…] Chocolate cravings from bacteria?At the risk of turning this into a food blog (it’s my third foodie post in a row), I can’t resist talking about a recent study from Mr. F’s previous employer, Nestle. According to Nestle researcher Sunil Kochhar, people who crave a … […]
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