
The dark truth about chocolate - raattgift
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/mar/25/chocolate-the-dark-truth-is-it-good-for-you-health-wellbeing-blood-pressure-flavanols
======
nkurz
That's a surprisingly in depth newspaper article! Rather than another article
about how chocolate is a "superfood", or debunking the "myth" of chocolate,
this is a look at how our perceptions of chocolate are affected by industry
driven science. The closing paragraphs give a flavor of the piece, telling of
an social experiment that I'm surprised I hadn't heard about (or at least
don't remember):

 _The role of the media in helping chocolate makers exploit our failure to
grasp the complexities of nutrition science was laid bare in a 2015 exposé.
German television journalists set up a three-week “study” in which they asked
one group of volunteers to follow a low-carb diet, another to do the same but
add a daily chocolate bar, a third to make no change to their diet. Both low-
carb groups lost an average of 5lb, but the chocolate group lost weight
faster. By measuring 18 different things in a small number of people, the
spoofers made it likely they would find “statistically significant” but fake
benefits of eating chocolate._

 _The “peer-reviewed” International Archives of Internal Medicine agreed to
publish a hastily written paper within 24 hours of receiving it – for a fee of
€600. John Bohannon, a Harvard University biologist and science journalist in
on the hoax, put together a press release. Within days stories had been
published in more than 20 countries. The Mail Online, Daily Express, Daily
Star and Bild were among those that fell for it._

More about how that paper came to be here:
[https://www.cjr.org/analysis/the_history_behind_the_chocolat...](https://www.cjr.org/analysis/the_history_behind_the_chocolate_hoax.php)

~~~
gkya
Guardian is a lovely newspaper. I particularly like the Long Reads, almost
always interesting. They have a mailing list for that, and also a weekly news
one, both just full of nice, useful content.

~~~
Stratoscope
The Guardian also made one of the greatest television commercials of all time.
If you've seen it, you know the one I'm referring to.

If you haven't, watch it two or three times:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3h-T3KQNxU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3h-T3KQNxU)

If anyone here remembers the Software Entrepreneur's Forum that met regularly
in the Palo Alto area in the '80s and '90s, Will Hearst gave a talk at one of
their meetings and played this commercial as an example of creative marketing.
High praise from another newspaperman, and well earned.

Tangentially, Will is also a mathematician and programmer. I don't know how
much code he writes these days, but back then he was known to be quite an AWK
enthusiast.

~~~
AndrewOMartin
I hope this would be the advert where a newspaper repeatedly unfolded to cover
an entire city, backed by some funky brass.

The linked ad is much more worthy, but I've always wanted to see the other one
again.

------
taxicabjesus
> During the 1990s, scientists became interested in the French paradox – the
> now discredited observation that heart disease rates were low in France
> despite a national diet high in saturated fats.

I joined a local Toastmasters club over a year ago. Last week we had a speech
from a member who grew up in France, found his way to an engineering
university in Florida, and now lives in Arizona. His latest speech told of how
he's lived _" the French Paradox"._ A few years ago he went home to visit
family. His aunt squeezed his cheek and sweetly said, _" You've become a fat
American."_ The rest of the speech was about how this motivated him to return
to his old French eating habits -- 5-course meals, small entrees, dairy,
desert. He lost 50 pounds. One of the key points he raised was how he makes an
effort to avoid most unsaturated oils.

There is no French paradox, because the French are correct to take food more
seriously than Americans. That some scientists think there is a "French
paradox" just shows how confused they are. IMHO, Ancel Keys' work was really
just junk science [0].

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancel_Keys](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancel_Keys)

~~~
JeanMarcS
French here. I think there are several points in the way we approach food here
in France.

There is a long tradition of gastronomy. Not saying we are the only country in
the world with a good gastronomy, of course not, but it's in our genes. I
think we are one of little peoples that are talking about food when eating.
When you eat with other people, there is always a moment when you start
talking about a restaurant, or a time, where/when you had a great meal.

We are also obsessed with our traditional meals or food. For example, close to
each dairy farm have its sort of cheese. A lot of them will never cross the US
border:-) There are moe than 1200 sort of cheese [1] and even protected ones,
meaning the recipes and origin are protected by 'law' [2].

And that's also true for ham, delicatessen (and we love those), meat, poultry,
and everything coming from unindustrialized farms (or not too much).

That's something we really care about. And because those foods taste
something, there is no need to add sugar or other in it.

Of course, that's for the tradition picture. But we also eat junk food,
microwaved food (even more since the 70's crisis where working or finding work
became harder and harder each year). We just went 3-4 decades eating bad,
especially in cities, and the obesity epidemy is somthing real in France too.

Fortunatly there was a wake up call in the middle of the 2000's and more and
more people try to come back to less industrialized processed food.

And in conclusion, there's something true for French : we LOVE to eat !

[1] List in French :
[https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_de_fromages_fran%C3%A7ai...](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_de_fromages_fran%C3%A7ais)
[2] Short list in English :
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_French_cheeses](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_French_cheeses)

~~~
fjsolwmv
What is delicatessen? In USA that just means cold cuts of meat.

~~~
JeanMarcS
Well I used Google Translate, but I guess it's something like that. The french
word is Charcuterie.

I haven't found a website in English, but here some pictures and
classification (in french)

[http://www.cuisinealafrancaise.com/fr/produits/boucherie-
cha...](http://www.cuisinealafrancaise.com/fr/produits/boucherie-
charcuterie/charcuterie-terrines-pates)

Searching was also the occasion for me to remember that french gastronomy is
since 2010 "Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of
Humanity" :-)

[http://us.france.fr/en/information/gastronomic-meal-
french-5](http://us.france.fr/en/information/gastronomic-meal-french-5)

~~~
kasey_junk
We use the French word in the states.

~~~
JeanMarcS
Oh ok ! Learned something, thanks.

~~~
kasey_junk
I mean, to be fair you’ll also see antipasto, deli tray, meat & cheese board
or even in some German influenced communities “vespers”.

But if you say charcuterie you’ll be understood.

~~~
carlmr
Interesting to see Vesper (pronounced Feshper where I live). That's a
distinctly southern German term that not even most Germans will use.

~~~
kasey_junk
I’ve seen it used mostly in small towns in the Midwest that were strongly
German immigrant communities.

If you go to the upper Midwest you will similar odd uses of Scandinavian
words.

It would not surprise me at all to learn that these communities are using
archaic or even incorrect words.

~~~
carlmr
It's correct and not archaic, it's just something very localized in Germany,
which I wouldn't necessarily expect a mixed immigrant community to adopt.

------
tlb
I wonder how long before we start seeing studies about the benefits of social
media or casual games. "People with more than 500 Facebook friends live up to
2 years longer." "People who spend more than $100/mo on loot boxes find jobs
17% faster."

Just do enough studies and the benefits will show.

~~~
Viliam1234
> Just do enough studies and the benefits will show.

Indeed, the latest research shows that people who do more than 200 studies get
15% more benefits.

------
tootie
Just reading the nutrition label on my bar of dark chocolate says it has a
significant amount of fiber and iron which makes it better than most other
desserts. I don't eat it like I'm eating vegetables. I eat it like it's a
treat that is better for me than other treats.

------
laurex
In general, I'd be skeptical of positive claims about any single food as a
health solution. There might be foods that are especially bad, but even then,
there's rarely a situation where one food, if the rest of the diet was
"healthy" (generally defining as non-processed and containing variety among
fresh ingredients that include whole grains, produce, and proteins), would be
problematic in moderation, unless the consumer was allergic to it.

Eating poorly can hurt, but there's not one "simple trick" that can change
that. People want some kind of antidote magic bullet to the health issues we
have, but food is very unlikely to fill that role. A good article:
[http://www.grubstreet.com/2018/03/ultimate-conversation-
on-h...](http://www.grubstreet.com/2018/03/ultimate-conversation-on-healthy-
eating-and-nutrition.html)

------
holografix
Lindt 78% cocoa surely has a positive impact on my mental health. I find one
or two squares at a time are enough due to the richness of the flavour.

~~~
smichel17
Is this an advertisement?

~~~
holografix
Not at all. Just genuinely like it and 78% seems like the “sweet spot” for me.
Where the 70% is a little too easy to over eat and the 85% is just too rich,
almost as if it’s a different thing, not quite “chocolate”.

------
jwilk
See also:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16673382](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16673382)

------
wodenokoto
What should one do, if one wants to try "what the Aztec's called the food of
the gods"?

~~~
JeanMarcS
Find a place where people actually grow cocoa beans. That sound stupid, I
know, but I'm not sure there are a lot of place else you can taste raw cocoa.

I once saw a TV report about a chocolate maker in Belgium who bought beans
directly and making all the process by himself. Perhaps some other do that ?

I have the chance to live in a carribean island where there's a place where
they grow cocoa. So you can test (and taste) it in its raw form.

It's particularly bitter ! And eons from chocolate.

I was the only one in a group of five to appreciate it. But just a sip :-)

~~~
ianai
You’re a little off base there. You can in fact make your own chocolate bars
at home [http://chocolatealchemy.com/](http://chocolatealchemy.com/)

Not an ad, just an anecdote that you don’t have to travel far for raw cocao.

~~~
felipemnoa
>>You can in fact make your own chocolate bars at home

And it isn't that difficult really. There are lots of places you can get raw
cacao from and recipes for chocolate bars are actually quite simple. The best
part about making your own chocolate bars is that you can experiment with how
much sugar, almonds, and cinnamon to add. Roast the almonds and cacao beans to
your liking, crush them all together until you get a nice dough texture and
voila! Chocolate.

------
debacle
Chocolate keeps me regular.

------
xchip
TL;DR: Most heath claims done by scientific studies are fake

------
mkempe
It's amusing to see a British paper attacking the health benefits of dark
chocolate, given what they sell as "chocolate" in stores. After having had
unfortunate opportunities to try it, I wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole.

~~~
walshemj
Which brands? if you have only ever eaten Cadburys going to a 70+% cocoa might
be an unusual taste, and in America big brand chocolate is even more
adulterated than it is in the UK

~~~
icc97
Comparison of th ingredients of Cadury's Dairy Milk in the UK vs US [0]:

> According to a 2007 report in The New York Times, a British bar contained
> (in order) of milk, sugar, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, vegetable fat and
> emulsifiers, whilst the American version manufactured by Hershey started its
> ingredients list with sugar. It also listed lactose, emulsifier soy
> lecithin, and “natural and artificial flavorings".

Cadbury's is typically the cheapest brand of chocolate in the UK. The UK got
an exception from EU law to create a new type of 'family milk chocolate' that
only contains 20% cocoa solids instead of 25% as is required in the rest of
the EU to call something milk chocolate [1]

[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadbury_Dairy_Milk#Ingredients...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadbury_Dairy_Milk#Ingredients_and_tastes_for_local_markets)

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_chocolate#Types](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_chocolate#Types)

