Author, obesity researcher .

Chocolate ‘may help keep people slim’ (not)!

On Tuesday 27th March 2012 the headlines started “Chocolate ‘may help keep people slim‘” announced the BBC. The Independent headline was remarkably similar: Chocolate ‘can help keep you slim‘” Australia reported “Chocolate keeps you slim” and the American Huffington Post went with “Eating chocolate could keep you slim, study finds“ This is the original article [...]

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Kellogg’s Special K Mini Breaks

I saw a full page advert in a Sunday supplement magazine yesterday for Special K Mini Breaks – Chocolate variety. Described as “Mmmmmmmmmm”; “crunch”; “delish”; “biscuit”‘; “chocolate”; “crispy”; “choccy”; “biscuity”‘; “crunch”; “moreish”; “99 calories a bag”; “crunchy, delicious, biscuity bites”. How to get every word possible to tempt a dieter to eat stuff that they [...]

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My Big Fat Diet Show

I’ve just watched the first episode of this programme and never has my book title “Stop Counting Calories & Start Losing Weight” seemed more appropriate. First of all – don’t you just love Anna Richardson?! She is one of my fave presenters – so natural, so approachable, so ‘one of us’ and good on her [...]

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Chocolate Price Fears

We are facing the worst cocoa shortage for 40 years – the price of cocoa rose to £2,055 a ton this week. I only need 85g each day – for my 85% cocoa 100g chocolate bar. So, dear cocoa growers, just keep some supply trickling through! Did you know that dark chocolate has approximately 40 [...]

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Chocolate twice a week ‘protects heart victims’

No surprise that I liked this article! As a regular consumer of 85%+ cocoa dark chocolate… A Swedish study has shown that heart attack survivors, who eat dark (real) chocolate regularly are nearly 70% less likely to die from cardiac problems than those who rarely eat it. Even a weekly treat can help, almost halving [...]

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Resistance is futile – Fighting chocolate craving ‘just makes you eat more’

A verbatim extract from the article: “Psychologist James Erskine, of the University of Hertfordshire, said “The act of avoidance seems to completely backfire.” We found that if you try not to think about eating chocolate, it tends to lead you to eat more….We now need to find ways to help women change their behaviour rather [...]

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