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Whatever the delicious truth, chocolate craving exists, according to a report in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
``Clearly, controversy surrounds the question of whether motivations for chocolate are physiological, psychological or pharmacologic,'' write Dr. Douglas Taren and Kristen Bruinsma of the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Despite the downside of fat and sugar consumption, the researchers add, the body's craving for chocolate should be acknowledged and may be fit into a healthful diet. The investigators came to this conclusion after reviewing studies of the physical, psychological, chemical and otherwise ''drug-like'' effects of chocolate indulgence.
For some people, the authors note, chocolate represents ''self-medication.'' For instance, certain compounds found naturally in chocolate, called biogenic amines, are also produced in the brain; some studies have shown that these compounds are important regulators of mood and may play a role in depression.
From a nutrition standpoint, the researchers report, chocolate's high concentration of magnesium may ease the effects of magnesium deficiency, a condition that research suggests may contribute to premenstrual syndrome. Along those lines, chocolate's storied association with some women's monthly cravings may well have a hormonal basis, according to the report.
``Chocolate cravings,'' Taren and Bruinsma note, ``appear to exist in 40% of females and 15% of males.'' Studies have shown that women's episodic chocolate cravings tend to be strongest just before menstruation, when levels of the hormone estrogen are moderate and progesterone levels are high. Because progesterone promotes fat storage, keeping it from being used as fuel, high levels of the hormone may trigger fatty-food cravings, they explain.
It is chocolate's fat, sugar and overall taste, smell and texture that are ``at the heart of the most widely accepted explanation for chocolate cravings,'' the authors write. Yet fat and sugar do not entirely explain chocolate's unparalleled appeal, since other sinful foods usually cannot satiate the chocolate craver's appetite. According to Taren and Bruinsma, ''75% of all self-titled chocolate cravers claim there is no substitute when they crave chocolate.''
So, the researchers conclude, it seems that chocolate's sensory rewards, chemical properties and nutrients conspire together to create ``chocoholics.''
The authors note that ``chocolate cravings affect a large percentage of Americans,'' and conclude by recommending that doctors and dietitians remember to ask patients about chocolate cravings and chocolate eating patterns.
SOURCE: Journal of the American Dietetic Association 1999;99:1249-1256.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) Sep 22- A growing number of Californians are choosing fast food over the four food groups - and many are paying for it with obesity and diabetes.
Nearly half of California adults who ate out on an average day in 1997 chose a fast-food restaurant, up from 33 percent in 1989, according to a study released Tuesday by the state Department of Health Services.
The study also found that 20 percent of those asked reported no physical activity during their leisure time in the previous month.
Valerie Navarro, a certified nursing assistant from Sacramento, said there's no time to worry about nutrition when she gets home from work.
``I don't eat breakfast and lunch is usually a soda and chips at work,'' she said. Navarro said she buys fruit and vegetables that are in season - if she's craving them.
Meanwhile, the overweight rate among adults rose from 17.8 percent in 1984 to 26.7 percent in 1996, while the diabetes rate jumped from 4.3 percent to 5.5 percent.
The numbers could get worse. Under newly revised health standards, nearly half the state's adults could be considered overweight in future years.
Poor eating habits and physical inactivity affected every segment of the population, with women - particularly Hispanic and low-income women - suffering the highest obesity rates, the study found.
The majority of Californians surveyed blamed their extra pounds on the power of suggestion: aggressive television advertising of snacks and fast food.
The findings come as no surprise to Dan Best, general counsel for the California Federation of Certified Farmers' Markets. Even at the markets, fresh fruits and vegetables compete with sweets.
``At our Chavez Park market, one of the longer lines is for the Kettle Corn, which is just sugar and popcorn,'' Best said. ``People who could have bought fruit bought snack food instead.''
Only 30 percent of Californians surveyed eat the five servings of vegetables or fruit daily that health officials recommend. The guidelines for grains, dairy products, beans and exercise are also largely ignored, the study found.
The state health department conducts its survey every two years, interviewing more than 1,700 people about their eating and exercise habits and comparing the data to the body mass index, a formula that considers height and weight.
To determine the BMI, divide body weight in kilograms by height in meters squared. A kilogram equals 2.2 pounds. A meter is 3.28 feet or about 39 inches.
For example, a 5-foot-8 person weighing 151 pounds has a BMI of 23; at 164 pounds, the BMI is 25, the threshold for overweight; 197 pounds yields a BMI of 30, the threshold for obesity.
September 21
By The Associated Press
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - The bonding between breast-fed children and their mothers is partly responsible for higher intelligence, but a new study finds most of the children's IQ gain comes from breast milk's nutritional value.
The survey by University of Kentucky nutritionist James Anderson looked at 20 different studies comparing the brain development of infants who had been breast-fed with that of infants who had been given formula.
``Our study confirms that breast-feeding is accompanied by about a five-points higher IQ than in bottle-fed infants,'' Anderson said.
Within that increase, Anderson said, he and his associates were able to separate the benefits from mother-infant bonding from the purely nutritional benefits of human milk.
``Our best estimates are that maternal bonding and the decision to breast-feed account for about 40 percent of that increase, but that 60 percent - 3.2 points - are related to the actual nutritional value of the breast milk,'' he said.
Anderson's study is being published in next month's edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
An accompanying editorial by Ricardo Uauy and Patricia Peirano cautions that none of the studies examined by Anderson were randomized, meaning they may not sufficiently account for the fact that breast-feeding mothers tend to be wealthier, better-educated and more concerned about infant development.
According to Anderson's study, intelligence is benefited by breast-feeding for up to six months. Children who are breast-fed for less than eight weeks show no IQ benefit, Anderson said.
The study was partially funded by Martek Biosciences Corp. (Nasdaq:MATK - news), a Winchester-based company that manufactures plant versions of two fatty acids found in breast milk, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid (AA).
Anderson, who subscribes to the theory that DHA and AA promote lasting brain development, said he sought funding from Martek.
Martek has a strong interest in seeing DHA and AA approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use as a supplement in U.S.-made infant formula. Formulas sold in 60 countries contain DHA and AA but they are not approved for use here.
Anderson said his pregnant daughter is taking a daily supplement of DHA at his urging. If she were unable to breast-feed, he said, ``I personally would recommend she give DHA to her infant.''
A scientist who has studied DHA and an infant formula maker cautioned that studies have not shown a clear link between DHA consumption and increased IQ.
``I think people deserve to understand that while breast-feeding has been linked to cognitive functions, DHA has mainly been linked to effects which are not cognitive, like (increased) attention and other behavioral effects,'' said Susan Carlson, a professor in the school of nursing at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Susan Finn, nutrition director at Ross Products, the Columbus, Ohio-based maker of Similac infant formula, said the company's studies have not shown a benefit to adding DHA and AA to infant formula.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Contrary to their slow-witted and even sickly image, Neanderthals were surprisingly robust, according to a two-year study of prehistoric bones discovered 100 years ago in Croatia.
``Their bones were as healthy as (those of) modern humans,'' said University of Pennsylvania radiology professor Dr. Morrie Kricun, a bone specialist who studied the X-rays of 874 Neanderthal bones that came from more than 75 individuals.
Neanderthals - ancient hominids replaced by modern humans about 30,000 years ago - suffered from age-related osteoarthritis and back problems but were not disease-ridden, Kricun said Sept. 20. Earlier studies had suggested that Neanderthals may have died out because of dietary deficiencies or other health problems, he said.
``They did not suffer from any inflammatory arthritis, inflammatory diseases of the spine, malignant tumors, metabolic or endocrine disorders,'' said Kricun.
``Sure, there was arthritis in some of the joints, some bone fractures that healed very nicely and a benign bone tumor in a rib of one of the individuals. But they were a healthy group based on their bones,'' Kricun said
Named for the Neander Valley in Germany where their remains were first found, Neanderthals lived in Europe, Africa, and the Near East between about 130,000 years ago and about 30,000 years ago. Scientists disagree whether they were the ancestor of modern humans or a related but different species.
The findings were released by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology one century after the bones were found in a cave in Krapina, Croatia. The X-rays were taken by researchers at the University of Zagreb in Croatia in 1989 and 1997, when they were sent to the museum for examination.
One reason researchers had theorized that Neanderthals vanished because of starvation and disease is the tiny lines often found in the enamel of their teeth, which suggested that all of the body's resources were being diverted toward healing, said Dr. Alan Mann, a museum curator and Penn anthropology professor.
``Lots and lots of modern human children have these lines,'' he said. ``They can come from measles or fever, which doesn't mean the child is dying but that the body is fighting an infection.''
Mann pointed out, however, that the remains studied were from 130,000 years ago - early in the Neanderthals' existence, when food might have been more plentiful and the climate more hospitable.
Dr. Janet Monge, keeper of the museum's physical anthropology collection and a professor at Bryn Mawr College, said the findings came as ``a real shock.'' Researchers were looking to simply catalog the bones in a database when they noticed how healthy the remains appeared, she said.
``The dogma that exists is that Neanderthals were struggling, inefficient in their environment, maladapted,'' she said. ``They're frequently portrayed negatively, but they were around for a long time in some very harsh conditions.''
Because of their large brow ridges and sloping profiles, Neanderthals ``fulfill a stereotype we have of brutish people,'' Mann said.
``We don't expect these brutish folk to have the same abilities as us,'' he said.
Earlier this year, experts who examined a 25,000-year-old child's skeleton in Portugal said it represented compelling evidence that humans as we know them evolved from mating between Neanderthals and anatomically modern man.
Joao Zilhao, director of the Portuguese Archaeological Institute, theorized that the two groups coexisted on the Iberian Peninsula and that their hybrid offspring eventually evolved into what is recognized as modern man.
Zilhao acknowledged, however, that further research and finds will be needed to substantiate his hypothesis.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Not sleeping enough can give you the same results as drinking too much.
That's the conclusion of a Stanford University study of people with mild to moderate sleep apnea: people whose breathing stops several or even dozens of times an hour, interrupting their rest without their knowledge.
About 12 million Americans have the problem but fewer than 2 million of them have been diagnosed, according to the American Sleep Apnea Association's Web site. The undiagnosed figure may be as high as 25 million, according to Stanford's Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Center.
People known to have apnea did as poorly on a test of reaction time as people who were too drunk to drive a bus or truck in California, said Dr. Nelson B. Powell of the Stanford center.
On three of seven measurements, they did worse than people too drunk to drive at all in California and other states where the legal test is a blood alcohol content of .08 percent.
Powell presented his study Sunday at the annual convention American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation, Inc.
He said he wanted to underscore the dangers of driving while sleepy, whether or not it's because of apnea.
``How many times have you or anybody you've known been nodding off at the wheel, or said, `Gee, I've got to roll the window down or turn the music louder'?'' he said. ``I'd bet every driver, at one time or another has driven too tired. We know it's wrong but we still do it.''
This study gives a comparison that people can understand, he said.
``This is a wonderful study,'' said Dr. Regina Walker, an associate professor of otolaryngology at Loyola University in Chicago. ``It is an extremely well-thought-out, well-controlled, prospective study that is looking at something I think is of great significance.''
The study looked at 80 volunteers and 113 people with apnea. The volunteers' average age was 29 and 56 percent were women. In contrast, 81 percent of the apnea patients were men, and their average age was 47.
However, statistical analysis ruled out age and gender as reasons for the difference, Powell said. He said the full analysis will be published next month in a national peer-reviewed journal.
All of the people took a 10-minute test of reaction speed, pushing a button to turn off a randomly set light. After four tests to get their baseline reaction time, the comparison group started drinking 80-proof alcohol.
They were tested three more times as they kept drinking. Their blood alcohol count averaged .05 percent at the first re-test, .08 percent at the second and .083 at the third.
It's illegal in California and several other states for anyone with a blood-alcohol content of more than .04 percent to drive a bus or truck, and .08 is considered legal proof of driving drunk in 16 states.
In addition to simple reaction times, analysts looked at six mathematical permutations, such as the means of the 10 fastest and of the 10 slowest times.
The apnea patients, whose breath stopped about 29 times an hour while they were asleep, did worse on all seven measurements than the drinkers did on their first re-test, and worse on three of them than those who were legally drunk.
``Many of my patients don't think being sleepy is a big deal,'' Walker said. ``I think this will help legislators and the public understand just how serious the problem is.
``Also that it's not controllable,'' she added. ``People think, `I can just make myself stay awake.' They can't.''
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