Walk away your cravings

Chocolate has been no stranger to the news headlines lately. As with all the things we love the most, not surprisingly the news is normally negative in nature.

Taking short walks throughout the day won’t just cut down on your consumption of sugary treats, but can actually help manage other pesky addictions like smoking- Matthew Muscat Inglott

CNN recently uncovered the scandalous use of child slave workers in the lucrative third world cocoa farming industries supplying top international chocolate manufacturers.

I sincerely doubt these revelations have in any way since stifled chocolate sales here in the Western world.

As with many of our favourite food stuffs like beef burgers, chicken nuggets, instant coffee and, of course, chocolate, as long as we like the taste we don’t really care what goes on behind the scenes provided we don’t have to see it with our own eyes.

But before this turns into a save-the-world rant, stop the press, because the latest chocolate headlines are all good.

Chocolate is well and truly here to stay, and so are our uncontrollable cravings for it, but wait a minute, are they really uncontrollable? I have yet to meet a woman who does not fall weak at the knees at the prospect of immediate and plentiful ingestion of the delicious brown stuff, and that’s not to say most men aren’t stricken by the same phenomenon too.

The exact numbers when it comes to sufferers of food cravings according to existing research are 97 per cent of women and 68 per cent of men; a pretty big issue by anyone’s standards.

Whether it’s exams, stress at work, boredom or relationship troubles, we have all at some time or other fallen victim to chocolate’s dark and evil allure.

The problem is that apart from a great taste, the chemical processes associated with eating chocolate have been shown to temporarily enhance mood, which is why it is so easy to get addicted.

In addition, the more you give in to your cravings then the more likely your will be to give in to them again and again in the future, because just like an evil little gremlin your cravings will only get stronger if you feed them.

It is indeed a slippery slope all the way down to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory oblivion.

In excess, chocolate won’t just sabotage your aspirations for a beautiful set of curves but it can cause lasting damage to your general health too.

When you eat anything this sweet, your blood sugar levels rise rapidly. In response, the body releases a hormone called insulin to take away the excess sugar and store it as fat, thus attempting to maintain a consistent blood sugar level on which the body thrives.

This means that in practice, the excess chocolate you eat is destined to be on a one-way ticket to fat stores in your butt, tummy and thighs.

To make matters worse, it has been shown that the associated weight gain may over time increase your chances of developing type-2 Diabetes.

So what has all this got to do with exercise and fitness, and what about that good news I promised?

Well, here it is: researchers at the University of Exeter in the UK have discovered a very simple way of controlling our chocolate cravings, so let’s put our chocolate croissants down for a moment and have a look at some of the hard science.

The study put 78 chocolate fans in a simulated work environment after two days of complete abstinence. They were split in two main groups; one of which was asked to rest for 15 minutes, while the other was put through its paces with 15 minutes of brisk walking on a treadmill.

Both groups were then immediately given various office-related tasks to perform at a desk. Also on the desk was a bowl of plentiful and delicious chocolate treats to which participants were free to help themselves.

The results were quite surprising. The participants who had just exercised for 15 minutes ate an average of about half as much chocolate as their sedentary peers. They ate the equivalent of one fun-size chocolate bar, or more specifically about 15 grammes.

The participants who did not walk on the treadmill instead consumed an average of 28 grammes.

The tasks assigned to the participants varied in difficulty, but the different levels of stress ultimately had no impact whatsoever on the amount of chocolate consumed.

It is not necessarily stress, therefore, that normally induces us to succumb. The more detailed results show that the effects of a short walk will curb cravings instantly, and subsequently last about 10 minutes after you sit back down again.

So how can we use this information to help us combat dangerous chocolate cravings? Just get up and walk around, it’s that simple.

Taking short walks throughout the day won’t just cut down on your consumption of sugary treats, but can actually help manage other pesky addictions like smoking.

It will also provide a wide array of other benefits like enhancing your mood, boosting circulation, stretching your muscles, burning additional calories and avoiding the development of bad posture.

Remember that just two such 15-minute brisk walks a day will amount to the daily recommended dose of physical activity required to improve your general physical and mental health and well-being.

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