Benefits of chocolate

THERE were two interesting studies in the papers last week.

The first of these could be seen on Tuesday and was about chocolate, while the second was published on Thursday and was about diet.

According to Dr Brian Buijsse, a bar of chocolate a day can cut your risk of heart disease by 39%.

Dr Buijsse said dark chocolate was better than milk as it contained greater amounts of antioxidants, which are good for beating cancer. He added dark bars also have more cocoa, believed to be good for blood pressure and the health of the heart.

A total of 30,000 people were used in the study of Dr Buijsse and he carried it out over an eight year period.

He found that even a small chocolate square can help and the optimum weight was 50g, comparable to a Wispa bar.

It was good to see a study that showed the benefits of chocolate, especially to a chocoholic like me.

I found the second study slightly more surprising.

In it scientists in America found that bacon for breakfast was healthier than muesli or fruit.

They carried out their study on mice and saw that eating fatty food in the morning led to the mice's metabolism starting earlier, which in turn meant they snacked less in the day.