Chocolate for breakfast

6 comments June 23rd, 2008

New research has led to formulation of the “big breakfast” diet that includes milk, three ounces of lean meat, two slices of cheese, two whole grain servings, one fat serving and an ounce of milk chocolate or candy at the first meal of the day.

I read about it in a by Serena Gordon, writing for Health Day about The Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco.

The upshot is that the breakfast makes up about half of the calories the person will consume for the day — the rest of the meals are made up of protein and complex carbohydrates such as vegetables — at a time when the body needs energy but at a time when cravings are low.

Thus, eating the candy when a craving for it is low means it won’t taste as good as it otherwise would. The brain, then, won’t associate as much pleasure as it would later in the day.

Eventually, according to the research, that cuts down on the craving.

Gordon also reported that sedentary, obese women on the “big breakfast” diet lost an average of nearly 40 pounds over an eight-month study period.