I just found a (new-to-me) blog that I highly encourage reading for anyone interested in nutrition and exercise.  Here’s a post I’ve copied from there.  It’s funny how our minds can try to filter things out to support what we want to hear as opposed to what we need to hear!

http://thefitnessnerd.blogspot.com/

Friday, February 26, 2010

I’d like to wrap up the week by addressing a recent review of studies from the American Academy of Neurology showing that small amounts of chocolate might have some serious health benefits.

The first study found that 44,489 people who ate one serving of chocolate per week were 22 percent less likely to have a stroke than people who ate no chocolate. The second study found that 1,169 people who ate 50 grams of chocolate once a week were 46 percent less likely to die following a stroke than people who did not eat chocolate.

Now, before you hightail it down to Willy Wonka’s Factory so that you can do a cannonball into the chocolate river, keep in mind that there are caveats at play here, best summed up by this sentence on the Consumer Reports blog:

Eating small amounts of dark chocolate has been linked to health benefits.

In all likelihood, you’re seeing this:

Eating small amounts of dark chocolate has been linked to health benefits.

When you should be seeing this:

Eating small amounts of dark chocolate has been linked to health benefits.

Just something to think about.

(By the way, I realize that “cannonball into the chocolate river” line turned out to be more of a double entendre than I intended, but I’m leaving it up anyway.)

Posted by D Faye