Calling all chocolate lovers! Researchers in the United Kingdom need your help in discovering the potential health benefits of dark chocolate. No, I’m not joking.
Could you eat chocolate every day for a year?
As reported in yesterday’s Telegraph, Scientists from the University of East Anglia, that’s in Norfolk, England, are looking for 40 volunteers to eat dark chocolate every day for a year. Hmm…sounds too easy, there must be a catch, right? Well, sort of…
Researchers are looking for postmenopausal women under the age of 76 (bummer, I don’t qualify) who don’t smoke and have been taking cholesterol lowering drugs for at least a year. These specific qualifications do serve a purpose. The researchers believe that the chocolate, rich in flavonoid plant compounds found in cocoa and soy, could protect postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes from developing heart disease. Wow, wouldn’t this be deliciously amazing if their hypothesis proved to be true??
Those who qualify for the study must eat a dark chocolate bar, specially made by a Belgian chocolatier (ok, can this get any better?), every day for a year. One caveat, the chocolate bars are said to have a “bitter” taste. Hey, it’s still chocolate.
For the love of chocolate!
If you’re like me and too young for this gig, you could always do your own experiment, eating chocolate every day for a year and noting your daily health. Better yet, skip the experiment part all together and just eat the chocolate. But, in the meantime, let grandma know that her dream job has just arrived!
