Adventures in Food
Posts tagged study
A week’s worth of chocolate
Mar 27th
Did you know chocolate is a vegetable? That’s right. Explaining her recent study results, which showed that people who get a daily dose of chocolate are slimmer than those who don’t, Beatrice Golomb, an associate professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego said, “It’s my favorite vegetable.” Dr. Golomb cited chocolate’s antioxidant prowess when comparing it to other vegetables. She also relayed that chocoholics those in the study who ate chocolate each day had a lower Body Mass Index (BMI) than those who didn’t.
Well, of course, I want to make sure that we’re all getting enough vegetables in our diet so here’s a week’s worth of recipes so you can get your fill.
Monday
Whole wheat chocolate yogurt loaf
Keep 100% whole wheat bread moist by adding in plenty of Greek yogurt and chocolate, of course!
Tuesday
Blueberry-spinach chocolate brownies
Spinach-Blueberry Brownies
These brownies have a boost of extra nutrition from a blueberry-spinach puree that you mix in the batter. My teen loves these brownies even though they do turn out a bit softer than your straight-chocolate recipe.
Wednesday
Easy peanut butter cups (no bake!)
These homemade peanut butter cups are easy to put together. Thanks for the idea Martha and Me.
Thursday
Chocolate chocolate chip cookies
From Garlic Girl, add cocoa to your chocolate chip cookies for a extra boost of the good stuff.
Friday
Chocolate raspberry truffle cheesecake
My signature dessert that I try to make infrequently because it’s soo tempting. (I should point out that technically you should be sticking to around an ounce of daily chocolate so you’d need to be nibbling your cheesecake slice.)
Saturday
Lemon Ginger Shortbread S’mores
Chocolate and lemon make such a surprisingly perfect combo–add a toasty marshmallow topping to make this updated kid classic from Good.Food.Stories.
Sunday
End your week with these simple treats that have both cocoa powder and mini-chocolate chips (although feel free to add the regular size if you feel like you haven’t been getting enough chocolate in your diet).
*Special thanks to the National Institutes of Health for funding this study and others like it. Dr. Golomb mentioned she needed to do additional studies. The big question: WHERE CAN I SIGN UP?
Chocolate = Depression? Maybe, maybe not.
May 4th
Photo credit: cacaobug
Chocolate causes depression? And here I thought it offered a cure!
So far researchers aren’t really sure what comes first—a chocolate fixation (and consumption), which then leads to depression or conversely, that depression comes first, followed by a big dose of self-prescribed chocolate cure. A recent study, which appeared in last week’s Archives of Internal Medicine, involved a group of 931 adults who were surveyed on their chocolate habits, along with their emotional state. Those who tended toward depression also consumed the most amounts of chocolate. When researchers tried to use other foods to mimic the emotional-food link they found with chocolate, none had quite the same effect (I could have told you that fish wouldn’t give you the heavenly high that comes with an ounce of dark chocolate).
The lead author of the study, Beatrice Golomb, an associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego, seems to have put her findings in perspective: “It’s possible chocolate has an antidepressant effects and that’s why [people with depression] are eating chocolate,” she said, as reported in the Wall Street Journal. “I think many of us believe chocolate consumption, at least in the short term, makes us feel better.” (Amen!)
Dr. Golomb offers some other insights that I need to point out at my next physical when my PCP asks if I eat enough fruits and veggies. “I tell all my patients: Chocolate is a vegetable,” says Dr. Golomb. Ah, I think I need to start eating more veggies!
What do you think—can overindulging in Hershey bars lead to depression, or does a dark chocolate Lindt bar offer a pick-me-up no prescription can?
Recent comments