Would you be willing to step forward and eat a chocolate bar at day for science?
I love science. It’s great to learn how things interact with each other and the cause and effect basis of the world around and within us. With that said, I found the headlines and lead-off sentences of this article very interesting.
Scientists at the University of East Anglia in the U.K. are conducting a research study to look at the effects of bio flavinoids in chocolates on post-menopausal women with diabetes. The study is looking for 150 women to volunteer for the tough task of having to eat chocolate every day while having their cardiac status evaluated over the course of a year.
The team their is wondering whether some chocolates, richer in bio-flavinoids, are more effective than others in helping maintain good cardiac health as we grow older. Post menopausal women have a greater risk of cardiac death than pre-menopausal women. When you add in the effects of those women who also develop Type II diabetes and you increase their risk factors again.
This study hopes to determine if enriched chocolates would be a good way to get elderly persons with decreased appetites to consume necessary nutrients to assist in health maintenance.
This article made a bit of a news splash recently and as a nurse, you may get questions from patients about eating chocolate for health. They are looking for a excuse to go ahead and eat that Hershey bar despite their diabetes.
Chances are that they are not managing their disease very well anyway, but it makes a good excuse for you to start with some re-education about their disease. Perhaps you can refer them to a community education program for diabetics. That’s one of the things that articles and headlines like this one are good for. They give us a doorway into learning and assessing our patients, especially those who are at risk for increased mortality rates from preventable causes.
