Maybe I Should Sit Down to an All-Chocolate Dinner

According to the latest research:

Beatrice A. Golomb, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues with the University of California, San Diego, studied 1,018 men and woman without known cardiovascular disease, diabetes or extremes of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels who were screened for participation in a clinical study examining noncardiac effects of statins. To measure chocolate consumption, 1,017 of the participants answered a question about how many times per week they ate chocolate. BMI was calculated for 972 of them. Of the participants, 975 completed a food frequency questionnaire.

"Adults who consumed chocolate more frequently had a lower BMI than those who consumed chocolate less often," the authors note.

This may be evidence against the Paleolithic Diet. I don't think Neanderthal Man had chocolate available.

In any case, this has been predicted (at least as far as hot fudge is concerned):

Dr. Melik: You mean there was no deep fat? No steak or cream pies or... hot fudge?
Dr. Aragon: Those were thought to be unhealthy... precisely the opposite of what we now know to be true.

One last point: You can't attribute this to “healthy-user bias.” Vegetarians might be thinner because they're likely to be fitness fanatics and work out frequently anyway. I don't think that's true of chocolate eaters.

Addendum: I just recalled additional information on chocolate.