Health aNd Fitness Guide

Even if you don’t watch what you eat, your body will. That’s the message from a new study, which suggests that diets “imprint” themselves on the metabolic system, attuning people to the food they prefer to chow down. Researchers found that the bodies of chocolate fans reacted differently when they ate the candy, compared to other people.

At issue is the body’s metabolism system, which converts food into energy. According to Sunil Kochhar, a researcher with the Nestle Research Centre in Lausanne, Switzerland, scientists are exploring the possibility of detecting metabolic problems to help people improve their metabolisms — and weight-control — through diet. The researchers recruited 11 men who loved chocolate and 11 who were “indifferent” to the sweet. Over five days, the participants ate either daily doses of 50 grams of different kinds of Nestle Cailler chocolate — milk chocolate, dark chocolate — or a placebo. Use of chocolate was “not the point of this study”, Kochhar said, but it allowed researchers to look at links between diet and metabolism. Analysis of blood and urine samples found that the chocolate-lovers had a specific metabolic profile — low levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol and marginal higher levels of a beneficial protein called albumin. It didn’t matter if they ate chocolate during the five days or not. The activity of beneficial bacteria in the digestive system, too, was different in the chocolate fans. It’s not clear if the research will help people avoid being fat, but it is a step towards manipulating metabolism to improve health. The next step would be to look at possible gender differences by studying women.