Eat more chocolate, win more Nobels?

October 10, 2012 by Marilynn Marchione And Karl Ritter in Other

Eat more chocolate, win more Nobels?

Enlarge

In this Nov. 26, 1999 file photo, employees package large Toblerone chocolate bars at the Kraft Jacobs Suchard AG factory in Bern, Switzerland. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012 ties chocolate consumption to the number of Nobel Prize winners a country has and suggests it's a sign that the sweet treat can boost brain power. It was published online as a "note" rather than a rigorous, peer-reviewed study. (AP Photo/Keystone, Martin Ruetschi)

Take this with a grain of salt, or perhaps some almonds or hazelnuts: A study ties chocolate consumption to the number of Nobel Prize winners a country has and suggests it's a sign that the sweet treat can boost brain power.

No, this does not appear in the satirical Onion newspaper. It's in the prestigious , which published it online Wednesday as a "note" rather than a rigorous, peer-reviewed study.

The author - Dr. Franz Messerli, of St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital and Columbia University in New York - writes that there is evidence that flavanols in green tea, red wine and chocolate can help "in slowing down or even reversing" age-related - a contention some medical experts may dispute.

Nevertheless, he examined whether a country's per-capita chocolate consumption was related to the number of Nobels it had won - a possible sign of a nation's "cognitive function." Using data from some major chocolate producers on sales in 23 countries, he found "a surprisingly powerful correlation."

Switzerland led in chocolate consumption and Nobels, when looked at according to population. The United States is in the middle of the pack with the Netherlands, Ireland, France, Belgium and Germany. At the bottom were China, Japan and Brazil. The study only includes Nobels through last year - not the ones being announced this week.

Curiously, Sweden should have produced only 14 winners according to its appetite for chocolate, yet it had 32. Messerli speculates that the Nobel panel, based in Sweden, may have "patriotic bias" toward fellow countrymen - or that Swedes are very sensitive to the effects of chocolate so that "even minuscule amounts greatly enhance their cognition."

It is possible, he admits, that chocolate isn't making people smart, but that smart people who are more likely to win Nobels are aware of chocolate's benefits and therefore more likely to consume it.

Sven Lidin, the chairman of the Nobel chemistry prize committee, had not seen the study but was giggling so much when told of it that he could barely comment.

"I don't think there is any direct cause and effect," Lidin said. "The first thing I'd want to know is how correlates to gross domestic product."

Messerli also calculated the "dose" of chocolate needed to produce an additional Nobel winner - about 14 ounces per person per year, or about nine Hershey bars.

He discloses that he is doing his part - he eats chocolate daily, mostly Lindt dark.

More information: Chocolate Consumption, Cognitive Function, and Nobel Laureates, www.nejm.org/doi/f… EJMon1211064

Journal reference: New England Journal of Medicine search and more info website

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

send feedback to editors
2.8 /5 (4 votes)  

Filter


Move the slider to adjust rank threshold, so that you can hide some of the comments.


Display comments: newest first

nuge
Oct 10, 2012

Rank: 4 / 5 (4)
I'm calling bullshit. It's simply because higher chocolate consumption is correlated with higher socioeconomic development, which is correlated with a better education system and more R&D, which in turn leads to more Nobel prize winners.

Correlation does not imply causation.
Silan
Oct 11, 2012

Rank: not rated yet
I'm calling bullshit. It's simply because higher chocolate consumption is correlated with higher socioeconomic development, which is correlated with a better education system and more R&D, which in turn leads to more Nobel prize winners.

Correlation does not imply causation.


Agreed. This is junk.
antialias_physorg
Oct 11, 2012

Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
Look at enough datasets of n numbers and you will find two datasets that correlate perfectly.

Statistics are all nice and dandy, but sometimes you have to be aware of their weaknesses and not just blindly publish numbercrunched results (or even extrapolate meaning out of such fluke hits).
alfie_null
Oct 11, 2012

Rank: 3 / 5 (2)
I'm with Dr. Lidin. It's just for fun. People here are too serious.

Who knows - maybe it's winning Nobel prizes that cause people to eat more chocolate.
physpuppy
Oct 11, 2012

Rank: not rated yet
The other issue with this "study" is quite blatant -

It looks at the per capita consumption of chocolate - what do people do in the country on average - not the specific Nobel winners' consumption - which is possible to be close to zero. Or not. But it was not determined.

Of course then one might claim (if the winners did not eat chocolate) that living in a country where everyone else is eating chocolate inspired those scientists.

Like an onion, there are many layers to this story... :-)

nuge
Oct 25, 2012

Rank: not rated yet
I'm with Dr. Lidin. It's just for fun. People here are too serious.

Who knows - maybe it's winning Nobel prizes that cause people to eat more chocolate.


Medical studies cost money to set up and take up researchers' time. And those researchers themselves take considerable time, effort and money to train and employ in the first place.

Therefore, I'd really rather they didn't waste time with bullshit "just for fun". They can have fun in their own time, but just like everyone else in the world, when they are working they should be...working.

There's a lot of important shit that needs to be studied, we can't afford to have capable people getting paid to fuck around.
Rank 2.8 /5 (4 votes)
Tags

nobel prize winners, chocolate consumption, new england journal of medicine, mental decline, brain power
Related Stories
more news
Relevant PhysicsForums posts

More news stories

Flesh-eating disease victim gets prosthetic hands

(AP)—A woman who lost both hands, her left leg and right foot after contracting a flesh-eating disease has been fitted with prosthetic hands.

Other created May 18, 2013 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Illinois Senate approves medical marijuana bill

(AP)—Medical marijuana use in Illinois is now in Gov. Pat Quinn's hands after the state Senate approved legislation.

Other created May 17, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Nigerian court jails two over killer teething drug

A Nigerian court on Friday sentenced two officials from a pharmaceutical company to seven years in prison over the sale of an adulterated teething drug which killed 84 babies in 2008.

Other created May 17, 2013 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Many patients would switch doc to cut health care costs

(HealthDay)—Many Americans feel that keeping out-of-pocket health care costs is more important than staying with the same primary care physician.

Other created May 17, 2013 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Cultural attitudes impede organ donations in China

(AP)—China is phasing out its reliance on executed prisoners for donated organs, but an architect of the country's transplant system said Friday that ingrained cultural attitudes are impeding the rise of ...

Other created May 17, 2013 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0


Researchers identify a potential new risk for sleep apnea: Asthma

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have identified a potential new risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea: asthma. Using data from the National Institutes of Health (Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)-funded Wisconsin ...

Computational tool translates complex data into simplified 2-dimensional images

In their quest to learn more about the variability of cells between and within tissues, biomedical scientists have devised tools capable of simultaneously measuring dozens of characteristics of individual ...

Study finds that sleep apnea and Alzheimer's are linked

A new study looking at sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and markers for Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and neuroimaging adds to the growing body of research linking the two.

New theory on genesis of osteoarthritis comes with successful therapy in mice

Scientists at Johns Hopkins have turned their view of osteoarthritis (OA) inside out. Literally. Instead of seeing the painful degenerative disease as a problem primarily of the cartilage that cushions joints, ...

'Gap' for HIV vaccine efforts after latest setback

The hunt for an HIV vaccine has gobbled up $8 billion in the past decade, and the failure of the most recent efficacy trial has delivered yet another setback to 26 years of efforts.

Ginger compounds may be effective in treating asthma symptoms

Gourmands and foodies everywhere have long recognized ginger as a great way to add a little peppery zing to both sweet and savory dishes; now, a study from researchers at Columbia University shows purified components of the ...