And then there are the stories that just lead you to the conclusion that there are people with too much time on their hands.

Researchers at the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation in Wisconsin have concluded that obesity rates increase in cities where the newspapers publish high-calorie dessert recipes.

Assuming that some percentage of the readers of any particular newspaper like to bake and that of those, a percentage may try the recipe for that luscious fat and calorie-ridden dessert, we must then calculate how many people that baker is likely to serve this treat to. Six? Seven? Eight at most, I should think. Assume then that this dessert is a big hit and friends and family insist that the baker must prepare this treat again, thus it begins to show up at company parties and family functions and holidays. That would be how often, three or four times a year? Does something you eat four times a year make you obese?

The report notes that the news media play an important role in providing nutrition information, but with respect to recipes, “this information is seldom studied.”

Maybe there’s a good reason for that.

It’s very satisfying to be able to occasionally report on the good news about chocolate. In addition to just tasting good and elevating mood, studies keep showing it provides health benefits by being rich in antioxidants and phenols.

A report in the April 9 issue of JAMA highlights a meta-analysis of previously published trials involving cocoa products and tea. Both cocoa and tea contain polyphenols, which are known to have beneficial effects on cardiovascular health and blood pressure.

Based on the results of these trials - five involving cocoa products and five involving tea consumption - researchers at the University Hospital of Cologne, Germany, concluded that cocoa products, especially dark chocolate, lowered blood pressure levels comparably to blood pressure medication.
Consumption of tea had no effect on blood pressure.

Researchers conclude that it is a difference in the types of phenols contained in the two products that leads to the varying effectiveness - black and green tea contain more compounds known as flavan-3-ols, cocoa contains more of another type of polyphenol, procyanids.

They aren’t recommending widespread consumption of cocoa products to lower blood pressure, mainly because those foods usually also contain high amounts of fat and sugar. Still, dark chocolate is recommended as a better choice than other high-fat or high-calorie desserts.

“Rationally applied, cocoa products might be considered part of dietary approaches to lower hypertension risk”, the authors conclude.

Cocoa, But Not Tea, May Lower Blood Pressure

Anyone who has been on a diet knows the hard work of counting calories, fat and carbs - and sometimes the sacrificing of flavor for function as we eat whole bran and dry fat-free cardboard food. The worst part about dieting is that nearly all people who manage to lose weight don’t succeed in keeping it off - in most cases the weight returns and sometimes dieters regain more than they lost.

A study at UCLA found that only a small minority of dieters consistently kept the weight off after losing it. Researchers also say that the yo-yo of losing and gaining weight may be linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes and altered immune function. The researchers concluded that many people would have been better off had they not gone on a diet at all.

Although a number of diets will work in the short term, researchers found that the largest predictor of future weight gain was whether or not the individual had recently lost weight on a diet.

According to Traci Mann, UCLA associate professor of psychology and lead author of the study, the evidence suggests that exercise, not dieting, may be the key to maintaining weight loss.

“Eating in moderation is a good idea for everybody, and so is regular exercise,” Mann said. “That is not what we looked at in this study. Exercise may well be the key factor leading to sustained weight loss. Studies consistently find that people who reported the most exercise also had the most weight loss.”

Dieting Does Not Work, UCLA Researchers Report

If you’re sticking to your diet, you might not be sticking to your budget. A study in the March issue of the Journal of Consumer Research indicates that people who have exercised self-control in some other area are more prone to make impulse purchases.

People need self-regulatory control to avoid impulse buying but if their resources of self-control are depleted by something else, like a new exercise or diet program, they are less likely to be able to muster the sales resistance necessary.

So, if your husband wants to know why you bought so much at the mall, just tell him “I’m dieting”.

On a diet? You’ll spend more on impulse purchases