Wanted: British women to eat chocolate for a year! (one small catch)

[Sir T]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20090723/tod-wanted-british-women-to-eat-chocolat-6058bda.html

Scientists in Britain are looking for women willing to eat chocolate every day for a year -- all in the name of medical science.

Researchers at the University of East Anglia and a hospital in Norwich, eastern England are trying to find out whether chocolate can cut the risk of heart disease and need 40 women to step forward and help.

Most of the women will have to eat two bars of "super-strength chocolate specially formulated by Belgian chocolatiers" daily for one year and undergo several tests to measure how healthy their hearts are.

The others will have to eat regular chocolate as a placebo.

One possible catch, for chocolate fans spotting an opportunity: volunteers for the research should be menopausal but aged under 75 and have type two diabetes.

Study coordinator Peter Curtis said: "A successful outcome could be the first step in developing new ways to improve the lives of people at increased risk of heart disease."

 

[Azaroth]

Feeding large amounts of sugar to diabetics is the next great step in managing heart disease risk?

I assume this study is funded by Cadbury.

I also assume the old diabetic bitches that kick off after a lengthy diabetic coma because of all the sugar will be marked down as "no heart attack".

[Righ]

It may be unsweetened chocolate such as baking chocolate. If formulated by Belgian chocolatiers it is unlikely that Cadbury PLC has anything to do with it.

[Lantyssa]

Two bars of unsweetened chocolate a day for a year?

[Samwise]

Yeah, I suspect it's super-dark or unsweetened chocolate rather than yummy milk chocolate.

[Ingmar]

Yeah, I suspect it's super-dark or unsweetened chocolate rather than yummy milk chocolate.

That just makes it better!

[Pennilenko]

What I want to know is do they have to eat the bars by themselves or can they cook with the chocolate...........Cause if they can cook with it...... 

[schild]

This chocolate is going to taste like shit unless they make super heavy dark chocolate drinks or cook with it (as Pennilenko said). Like, just super disgusting.

[K9]

Really dark chocolate is fantastic.

[Trippy]

They make chocolate with artificial sweeteners now.

[dusematic]

Just because you're diabetic doesn't mean you can't have sugar.  I'm not an expert on the disease, but my uncle has it, and he eats normally (i.e. he'll have candy or ice-cream now and then).  He just has to monitor his blood sugars, and supplement accordingly with various insulins.  So I guess it just means you have to take more insulin.  I think (but not sure) that the prohibition against sugar is more properly directed at the people who have the "obese" version of diabetes.  Those guys just need to chill out with food in general.

[apocrypha]

Study smells of fail from that description.

40 subjects? Sample size far too small to tell anything useful. "Most subjects" will eat the dark choc, the others eat regular choc as placebo. So it's not a properly controlled group and the placebo isn't a placebo.

I'm guessing it's an undergraduate study or it is indeed funded by a chocolate manufacturer or it's just the usual bullshit and nonsense "journalism" that seems to consist of making up stories and/or doing zero research on any given story.

[Merusk]

Really dark chocolate is fantastic.

Agreed.

[NiX]

Study smells of fail from that description.

40 subjects? Sample size far too small to tell anything useful. "Most subjects" will eat the dark choc, the others eat regular choc as placebo. So it's not a properly controlled group and the placebo isn't a placebo.

I'm guessing it's an undergraduate study or it is indeed funded by a chocolate manufacturer or it's just the usual bullshit and nonsense "journalism" that seems to consist of making up stories and/or doing zero research on any given story.

Go find more than 40 women under 75 with menopause and type two diabetes. It's probably not as easy as you think.

[Lantyssa]

It's easy to find a woman under 75 with menopause, since most women over 50 qualify, and some younger.  It's pretty easy to find someone with type two diabetes.  I'm sure there's a large overlapping section.

[Azaroth]

They make chocolate with artificial sweeteners now.

My long search is over. Finally, a product that will remove all desire to ever eat chocolate again as long as I live.

[NiX]

It's easy to find a woman under 75 with menopause, since most women over 50 qualify, and some younger.  It's pretty easy to find someone with type two diabetes.  I'm sure there's a large overlapping section.

Sure, if you're looking across an entire country. In a local area I'm sure it's not that big of a number and you have to factor in that some won't want to do the study.

[apocrypha]

Statistical validity and meaningful results criteria aren't different because your chosen cohort is difficult to recruit. Bad research is bad research whatever the reasons.

[Murgos]

It's easy to find a woman under 75 with menopause, since most women over 50 qualify, and some younger.  It's pretty easy to find someone with type two diabetes.  I'm sure there's a large overlapping section.

Sure, if you're looking across an entire country. In a local area I'm sure it's not that big of a number and you have to factor in that some won't want to do the study.

Having just come from there I can say that there is no shortage of old fat women in the UK.

[Righ]

You could get a sample of 40 from the Morrisons Superstore in Anniesland, Glasgow alone.

[apocrypha]

You could get a sample of 40 from the Morrisons Superstore in Anniesland, Glasgow alone.

Nah, they probably want non-smokers