Eating milk chocolate every day might seem like a dish for weight gain, however a brand-new research study of postmenopausal ladies has actually discovered that consuming a focused quantity of chocolate throughout a narrow window of time in the early morning might assist the body burn fat and reduce blood glucose levels.
To discover the impacts of consuming milk chocolate at various times of day, scientists from the Brigham teamed up with detectives at the University of Murcia in Spain. Together, they carried out a randomized, managed, cross-over trial of 19 postmenopausal ladies who took in either 100g of chocolate in the early morning (within one hour after waking time) or during the night (within one hour prior to bedtime). They compared weight gain and numerous other procedures to no chocolate consumption.
Researchers report that amongst the ladies studied:
- Morning or nighttime chocolate consumption did not cause weight gain;
- Eating chocolate in the early morning or at night can affect appetite and hunger, microbiota structure, sleep, and more;
- A high consumption of chocolate throughout the early morning hours might assist to burn fat and lower blood sugar levels.
- Evening/night chocolate modified next-morning resting and workout metabolic process.
“Our findings highlight that not only ‘what’ but also ‘when’ we eat can impact physiological mechanisms involved in the regulation of body weight,” stated Scheer.
“Our volunteers did not gain weight despite increasing caloric intake. Our results show that chocolate reduced ad libitum energy intake, consistent with the observed reduction in hunger, appetite, and the desire for sweets shown in previous studies,” stated Garaulet.
Reference: “Timing of chocolate intake affects hunger, substrate oxidation, and microbiota: A randomized controlled trial” by Teresa Hernández-González, Rocío González-Barrio, Carolina Escobar, Juan Antonio Madrid, Maria Jesús Periago, Maria Carmen Collado, Frank A. J. L. Scheer and Marta Garaulet, 23 June 2021, The FASEB Journal.
DOI: 10.1096/fj.202002770RR
Frank A. J. L. Scheer, PhD, MSc, Neuroscientist and Marta Garaulet, PhD, Visiting Scientist, both of the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Departments of Medicine and Neurology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Drs. Scheer and Garaulet are co-corresponding authors of this brand-new paper released in The FASEB Journal.
