Sunday, December 31, 2006

Chocolate and naloxone

I heard about this tonight while watching Super Size Me and immediately looked it up because I was skeptical.

Drewnowski tested the theory on 41 women, bingers and normal eaters. They were offered their favorite foods, from pretzels and jelly beans to chocolate chip cookies and chocolate ice cream. Half received injections of naloxone, a drug used to treat heroin overdoses because it blocks brain opiate receptors. The rest got a placebo of salt water.

Naloxone made bingers eat notably less - 160 fewer calories per meal, Drewlowski reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Their chocolate consumption dropped in favor of lower-fat foods like popcorn. When asked to rate their favorite foods again, chocolate dropped.

It makes sense but it sounds too good to be true and I couldn't believe I hadn't heard it before. Here's the original article. It seems that everything discussing the matter points to this single article. Does any one know if it's been replicated?

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