It was too good to be true. Eating chocolate every day couldn’t possibly have made our bodies slimmer, although we still daydream about it. News in the media used to scream about new findings in terms of nutrition habits, turning chocolate into the queen of diets. Chocolate doesn’t help weight loss but the previously published study is a clear case of mockery that could have gotten away with chocolate diet murder.
The chocolate diet study revealed that eating dark chocolate helped in losing weight much faster than keeping away from dark sweetness indulgence. The study appeared to be real in every way, as it used real volunteers, real food and real analysis of various health indicators. Weight, cholesterol and sleep quality were analyzed during the research period and it showed measurable results published in a well-known journal.
Some important newspapers like the German publication Bild had published the findings meant to thrill the entire mankind, as there’s surely too few of us who don’t like to indulge themselves into sweet delicacies. More than 20 countries took over this thrilling piece of news that was translated accordingly, into 20 foreign languages. It was debated on television, announced in news shows, revealed in glossy magazines, shared on Facebook, ranking in Google searches, everyone was impatient to find out how chocolate can sweeten our lives and slim down our bodies, leading to healthier cholesterol levels.
No miracle lasts more than three days they say, and it seems that this assertion is true, because all the breaking news about the benefits of chocolate in weight loss diets are now contradicted by greater findings.
Everything turned out to be a media mockery, as the results are meaningless and don’t offer any truths. The study was conducted by Johannes Bohannon who is actually a journalist and has a Ph.d but in the molecular biology of bacteria and not humans.
The study was entirely authentic, with people recruited in Germany and clinically tested and subjects assigned to different diet regimes. But the science behind the trial seems to be very bad science.
This is a very relevant case on how media can have a very bad influence on information. We are inclined to believe what press dictates to us, especially if facts are backed up by strong statistics. Surprisingly, statistics are not enough to shed the light of truth over all the information we are given to swallow.
In our craving-for-perfection world, everyone is interested on information that reveals new methods of keeping fit or slimming down the body and media takes advantage of the readers’ naiveté, by pumping junk information on various topics. For those of you who are really interested in truthful facts, extensive research is needed. Written words must be strengthened with facts and media doesn’t help with that. Everything must be swallowed with a seed of doubt, debated and assessed thoroughly before taken for granted.
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