Eating Chocolate As Soon As You Wake Up May Have Weight Benefits

As unlikely as it sounds, a new study from Brigham and Women's Hospital and the University of Murcia has found that eating chocolate soon after getting up in the morning may help regulate appetite, alter gut bacteria, and aid the body in losing weight. The research involved milk chocolate rather than the dark chocolate that is commonly used for these types of studies.

The new research involved 19 women who were postmenopausal and separated into two groups: one tasked with eating 3.5oz of milk chocolate within one hour of waking up in the morning, and the other with eating the same amount of chocolate within the hour before going to bed at night.

The data from these two groups were compared to similar data from people who did not consume chocolate. Neither the morning nor night group of participants experienced weight loss from adding chocolate to their diets. However, there were some differences between the two.

The study found that chocolate can influence everything from your appetite to sleep quality. Eating chocolate within an hour of getting up in the morning was linked with benefits when it comes to blood sugar levels and fat burning. On the flip side, eating chocolate right before bed was found to alter metabolism in the morning.

This isn't the first study to find health benefits, including ones related to weight, in association with chocolate. Earlier this year, for example, a study from Penn State found that adding cocoa powder to one's daily diet helped reduce weight gain in mice, as well as improving various health consequences associated with obesity, including non-alcoholic liver disease.