Honestly, where was this news around Easter? A new study has revealed that eating dark chocolate increases athletic performance just as much as exercise does. But wait, it gets better. When a small amount of dark chocolate was eaten with a combination of a regular diet and exercise, performance was increased by 50 percent. Get your broker on the horn and start investing in dark chocolate makers right now because this is possibly the biggest, most exciting news since the Internet was conceived.
I seriously do not know why you're hesitating. Dark chocolate is the answer to all our prayers! Don't you get it?!
Oh you, and your need for all the facts. Fine. So the study was conducted using mice (but American mice! And middle-aged mice!), and after feeding the cute little guys a bit of dark chocolate, they found that the mitochondria in their cells increased. If you're anything like me and totally forget everything you learned in high school biology class, the mitochondria, turns out, are what powers the cells, what gets 'em going.
So the more mitochondria you've got, the more energy you have. The dark chocolate also increased the number of capillaries in cells, which in turn can send more oxygen to your muscles doing all the work pounding away on the treadmill.
Dark chocolate, or, as I'm dubbing it, God's Personal Gift to Me, contains a plant chemical called epicatechin, which is believed to stimulate muscle growth. Scientists are hoping this study leads to using dark chocolate as a way to combat older people's muscle deterioration.
But that's no fun. Let's just go with eating dark chocolate is the same as exercising. So forget about those damn dumbbells. Fold that ancient NordicTrack back under your bed where it belongs, and break out a bar of rich, dark chocolate. Take a walk around the block afterward, and boom, you're a regular old Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Something like that.
Dark chocolate is known to have a lot of other health benefits, too. Do you eat it?
Photo via Boz Bros/Flickr
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Comments 43
i really like chocolate esp. the ones that have macademian nuts in them. of course, most of us like some variations but if i am going to use it in place of exercising than i'd have to recalculate my thinking process on that.
if dark chocolate is pure and less expensive than i would go for it. one thing i know is that if it does not up-regulate at least two enzymes i.e. HO1 and SOD then we're wasting our money.
to be like 'regular old Arnold Schwarzenegger' maybe not be a long ways for some of us but we sure will get old and lack energy and/or be sickly. one interesting site that talks about the effects of old age is www.theoldage.com.