DailyDirt: The Unquestioned Benefits Of Chocolate

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

In a few days, a lot of chocolate will be eaten by kids (and maybe their parents), and there will also be a lot of discounted candy and chocolate on sale in many grocery stores. Just so that we don't feel too bad about indulging on Halloween treats, here are a few studies that might ease our guilt for a while. If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.
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Filed Under: causation, chocolate, chocolate placebo, correlation, emulsion, nobel prizes


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  • icon
    Divide by Zero (profile), 26 Oct 2012 @ 5:32pm

    With two screaming under-two's, I would kill any *AA member for a boat load of chocolate. Or even one bite.

    I'm only half joking.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2012 @ 6:05pm

    blah.. blah.. blah.. Nobody cares, at all..

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    ChrisB (profile), 26 Oct 2012 @ 6:10pm

    Fat vs sugar

    > Chocolate can be made even healthier by replacing
    > its fat content with fruit juice.

    When will this nonsense die? Fat doesn't make you fat. It was removing fat and replacing it with sugar in the 70s that caused the obesity epidemic.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      shawnhcorey (profile), 28 Oct 2012 @ 6:47am

      Re: Fat vs sugar

      Cocoa beans are loaded with things that are good for you included saturated and monounsaturated fats. What's bad for you is all the sugar (carbs) they add to cover its bitter taste. You should only eat chocolate that's 70% or higher cocoa.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    mischab1, 26 Oct 2012 @ 6:21pm

    "Chocolate can be made even healthier by replacing its fat content with ... a Pickering emulsion of fruit juices and milk"

    Not for those of us who are allergic to milk. :-(

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    cm, 26 Oct 2012 @ 7:08pm

    chocolate and slavery

    Although I love dark chocolate and think there may be a health benefit, I have recently stopped buying chocolate that isn't certified as Free Trade, since the African chocolate industry still has a substantial problem with both slavery of children and harmful child labor practices.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_in_cocoa_production

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2012 @ 7:58pm

      Re: chocolate and slavery

      Which will somehow be blamed on the white man.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    choclogic, 26 Oct 2012 @ 8:08pm

    Thin people eat more choc than fatties.
    OK, so if rich people eat more caviare than poor people, eating more caviare could make me become a rich person! I love this logic.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    99% of your articles are food ... guy, 27 Oct 2012 @ 6:24am

    I haven't had my breakfast yet.

    Now I am eating chocolate.

    DAMN YOU MICHAEL HO !
    (and your food related Saturday articles)
    (you can pay for my soon to acquire diabetes ; )

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Laroquod (profile), 28 Oct 2012 @ 1:18pm

    Cripes Techdirt do you even read this stuff before you link it? The first link specifically says that this was a study designed to demonstrate the *fallibility* of common statistical methods in science. The conclusion that more chocoloate equals more Nobel prizes was intended to so absurd as to demonstrate to the flaws in the methodology. And here you are publishing it as fact and unwittingly proving the scientist's point. LOL!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Michael Ho (profile), 29 Oct 2012 @ 12:57pm

      Re:

      Laroquod,

      "This study brought to you by the Correlation Is Not Causation Foundation." -- That sentence was my way of saying this study was specifically designed to demonstrate that statistics are misinterpreted....

      You can try to find correlations between almost any two variables, but it doesn't mean there's any kind of causation relationship between them.... and there's definitely no causation relationship between chocolate consumption and winning a Nobel prize.

      This is one of my favorite XKCD cartoons:
      http://xkcd.com/552/

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        shawnhcorey (profile), 29 Oct 2012 @ 1:14pm

        Re: Re:

        Yes, but the lack of correlation means the lack of causation. That is why correlation is an important first step. Sadly, for many, it's the only step. ☹

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Laroquod (profile), 30 Oct 2012 @ 8:45am

        Re: Re:

        You made an oblique reference to the actual point of the study, but you still trumpeted its conclusions, when the whole point of the study was for you NOT to trumpet its conclusions. The point of the study was to produce such an ABSURD result that it would be impossible for the media to trumpet that conclusion. The scientist who did the study expected it to be so ridiculous that chocolate produces Nobel winners, that it would clearly spark a discussion about correlation and causation. But you (and the source article) instead portrayed the conclusion as non-absurd, and relegated the correlation lesson to a footnote.

        I hope that you can see how completely backwards and wrong it is, what you have done here.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Laroquod (profile), 30 Oct 2012 @ 8:47am

        Re: Re:

        In fact, you have unwittingly proven the scientist's point.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          Michael Ho (profile), 30 Oct 2012 @ 12:16pm

          Re: Re: Re:

          The title of this post *is* the /unquestioned/ benefits of chocolate.

          Sorry for trying to be too clever in this post.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

          • icon
            Laroquod (profile), 31 Oct 2012 @ 7:27pm

            Re: Re: Re: Re:

            Is it because of my comments in this thread that my posts suddenly have to be moderated before they are posted? That seems pretty unfair. I don't ever post anything abusive or offensive.

            link to this | view in chronology ]

            • icon
              Laroquod (profile), 1 Nov 2012 @ 8:57am

              Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

              Never mind -- just heard about the moderation bug. Anyway thanks for your responses.

              link to this | view in chronology ]


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