I think I don't reveal any secrets when I say that children love sweet foods. Well, in fact, adults also love us (not everyone, of course, but most of them) and perhaps the difference is that we understand that it is unhealthy to eat based on them, while children have a hard time more to understand the concept of healthy food and that of "eat this that is not so good instead of that so sweet that you would like to eat".
Chocolate is part of that group of foods that children would probably choose to eat at any time and adults usually do the most logical thing, which is to limit consumption for a matter of health and for a matter of weight, since we are always He said he gets fat. However, now this statement has been questioned, because A recent study has concluded that chocolate does not make you fat And that's not all, it seems that whoever eats it has less body fat.
The study was carried out by researchers from the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Sports Sciences of the University of Granada (UGR), being an investigation that is included in the HELENA (Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence) study, and in he has seen that people who drink more chocolate have lower total body fat levels, and also lower levels of central (abdominal) fat, regardless of whether they exercise or not and regardless of the diet they follow.
When doing the study, they sought to know how the consumption of chocolate affected the body, since the Helena project aims to study the eating habits and lifestyle of young people from nine European countries, among which is Spain.
To do the study they used a sample of 1,458 teenagers between 12.5 and 17.5 years old, to those who were asked to record for 24 hours the diet they had taken that day, that is, to write down everything they ate. They repeated the operation with another day that was not consecutive to the previous one and, with these data, they carried out the investigation, seeing that those who consumed more chocolate had less body fat (obtained the percentage by means of plicometry and bioelectric impedance). As we have said, the results were independent of physical activity, sex, age, sexual maturity, total energy intake, saturated fat intake, fruit and vegetable intake and tea consumption. and coffee.
Magdalena Cuenca, author of the study comments the following:
Recent studies in adults suggest that its consumption is associated with a lower risk of cardiometabolic disorders ... it is a great antioxidant, anti-thrombotic and anti-inflammatory, has anti-hypertensive effects and can help prevent ischemic heart disease.
The result does not surprise researchers, as other studies have shown that higher consumption in adults is associated with a lower body mass index. Now, do not go crazy now and start giving chocolate to our children at all times. The same researchers point out that, while it seems that moderate consumption of chocolate may be good, excessive consumption could be harmful, as can happen with all food: "Too much of a good thing is no longer good".
My question about it is knowing what chocolate teenagers drank. I imagine that since it is a record of what young people eat in their homes there would be everything, more black chocolates and others with milk, some with more sugar and others with less, and I would lack to know if these benefits are equal or less in the young people who drink chocolate with more sugar and more milk.
In any case, it is interesting to know data as new as these, since to date, chocolate was considered an almost prohibited food for anyone interested in maintaining a non-curved body line, and almost forbidden for children, of course, because it is a sweet food. Healthier than candies, obviously, but not among those who should consume daily. Now it seems that parents will leave more wide sleeves.
