As with any study that attempts to correlate behaviors and results with no way to determine causality, caution is in order. This article from the
August 29, 2012 Chicago Tribune reports on a correlation between chocolate consumption and strokes:
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Men who regularly indulge their taste for chocolate may have a somewhat decreased risk of suffering a stroke, according to a study out Wednesday.
Swedish researchers found that of more than 37,000 men followed for a decade, those who ate the most chocolate had a 17 percent lower risk of stroke than men who avoided chocolate.
And this was true even after controlling
for "the men's weight and other diet habits, whether they smoked and whether they had high blood pressure."
I find it hard to imagine a mechanism by which people less prone to stroke become more likely to eat chocolate regularly, especially after controlling for things which might be related to chocolate consumption.
ReplyDeleteThere might be a third factor that causes both. Something like, if you metabolize sugar a certain way, you are less likely to suffer a stroke. Such people might eat more chocolate because the find they don't gain weight from it.
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