NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Chocoholics looking to curb their chocolate
urges may be able to do so simply by taking a brisk 15-minute walk, results of a
study from the United Kingdom hints.
"Taking active breaks throughout the day may be valuable in helping to limit the
consumption of pleasurable, but unnecessary, calories," Professor Adrian Taylor
of the School of Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Exeter told
Reuters Health.
Chocolate is likely the most commonly and intensely craved food, and chocolate
urges are often triggered by boredom, stress, or the desire to uplift mood or
increase alertness, note Taylor and colleagues in the journal Appetite.
Yet study findings have shown that short bouts of exercise, such as brisk
walking, can also improve alertness and mood, and reduce sugar snack urges.
These findings led Taylor's group to investigate how short bouts of brisk
walking, versus being sedentary, might alter chocolate urges.
The investigators enlisted 20 women and 5 men (25 years old on average) who
reported eating at least 2 chocolate bars daily and had similarly intense
chocolate cravings to abstain from eating chocolate for 3 days.
The participants also abstained from caffeine products and exercise for 2 hours
prior to undergoing each of two testing scenarios -- either 15 minutes of brisk
walking or sitting quietly for 15 minutes. After each scenario, participants
completed a mentally arousing task and handled, but did not eat, a chocolate
bar.
Post scenario testing showed being sedentary "did nothing to reduce chocolate
cravings, whereas doing a 15-minute walk reduced urges to eat chocolate," Taylor
said.
Exercise also appeared to lessen participants' increase in urges/cravings to eat
chocolate when it became available.
Further research, Taylor noted, should assess whether increases in daily
activity, particularly in the workplace, regulates subconscious cravings,
especially among women who have higher chocolate cravings than men.
SOURCE: Appetite, November 2008.
