Concerns About Chocolate Consumption and Indicators of Adiposity

Concerns About Chocolate Consumption and Indicators of Adiposity

Gemmel DJ; Barreiro TJ

The American Journal of Medicine

2021

2021-07-30

We read the paper by Smith et al,1 which suggested that chocolate consumption was associated with lower adiposity, but wanted to express concern about the paper and methodology. Single exposure to chocolate in cross-sectional data collected via a single 24-hour dietary recall survey does not represent a robust measure of chocolate exposure, especially because the authors concede that the average US adult consumes 4.4 kg of chocolate a year. Most of the benefits of chocolate have been attributed to cocoa or cacao. The processing of the latter into chocolate, especially with the addition of milk and sugar, even for dark chocolate, make the reported association unlikely. Likewise, exclusion of diabetics with insulin resistance and higher levels of adiposity suggests that the observation may not be relevant to many Americans, including those with metabolic syndrome. Authors have excluded those who would demonstrate an association between chocolate and adiposity.

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Journal Article

e476

8

134

NEOMED College of Medicine

Department of Internal Medicine

Jan to Aug list 2021