Dark Chocolate Better Than Exercise – Crap Science

Fitness myths or fitness facts. How can you tell the difference? As an engineer I am steeped in the scientific process, unfortunately much of the rest of the world it not. We are surrounded by claims that appear to be, well factual, when in reality they are a bunch of crap.

Dark Chocolate As Good As Exercise – FAIL

A few weeks ago, September 15, 2011 to be exact the news media was flooded with stories on how dark chocolate was as good as exercise. Strangely enough, not a single news article referenced any research to justify the claims.

Here is an example of the news report from Fox4Now: Dark chocolate just as good as exercise.

Typical crap, but how would I know.

How To Test For Crap Science

I went digging. I went digging for the underlying research and found it. To test for crap science, it is essential to dig for the underlying facts (if there are any). It takes some work, but it is the only way to live without getting sucked into every stupid story and fad that gets pushed at us from every single direction. Dig with me and test for crap science.

One news story mentioned the researcher was Dr Moh H Malek from Wayne State University. That little bread crumb was what I needed to find the original research, check out the keyword-enriched-title (NOT).

(-)-Epicatechin enhances fatigue resistance and oxidative capacity in mouse muscle.

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These findings indicate that (-)-epicatechin alone or in combination with exercise induces an integrated response that includes structural and metabolic changes in skeletal and cardiac muscles resulting in greater endurance capacity. These results, therefore, warrant the further evaluation of the underlying mechanism of action of (-)-epicatechin and its potential clinical application as an exercise mimetic.

Wow. Now how the AP-News wire translated that into a human application will undoubtedly remain a mystery. I did attempt to reach Dr. Moh Malek, but I didn’t get any type of response from him. I was very curious to know how he felt about how his research was being applied, and I use that term very loosely.

Facts Behind Dark Chocolate Being As Good As Exercise

So if you sift through the research you can see how the story emerged, but it is a stretch. Here is why the facts behind dark chocolae being as good as exercise, just don’t stand the test of the scientific-method:

1. MICE – that’s right the single study being referenced was based on studying mice. Sure some would argue that the findings can transfer, but really how do we know. At least the published research concluded more research should be done – amen to that.
2. epicatechin – don’t even ask me to pronounce it. What the heck is it and why did people jump from that crazy-term to dark chocolate? Well epicatechin is a flavanoid. Finding trusted sites to explain it was not easy. I ended up using Wikipedia check out their page on Catechin. I found it particularly interesting that their information said it is also found in cacao beans. Somehow dark chocolate became the primary form of delivering epicatechin to people. How did that happen?
3. Duration – the study lasted 15 days. Really, when was the last time you tried a new diet or fitness program? Were you able to determine lasting effects in just 15 days? Maybe. when I started Intermittent Fasting I noticed some differences in the first two weeks, but hardly enough to know if it would be a lasting change. When I started with kettlebell workouts there were short-term results, but the as the days, turned to weeks that’s when the true benefits of kettlebell workouts started to show up. Sure I guess you could say 15 days is several decades in mouse-years, but 15 days is a short period of time.
4. Exercise – The study says the mice performed treadmill exercise. What does that mean for us? What duration? What intensity? Would we need to perform steady-state treadmill exercise, or interval running, or high intensity interval training on the treadmill? Plus I haven’t talked to too many people who are interested in improving their hindlimb performance.

For mice those results are great. The researchers even come to a valid conclusion – this is interesting and requires more study to see if and how it applies. The problem emerges in the next step in the chain. Somewhere someone took solid science and crafted a tale, a tale that piqued interest of nearly every news channel across the AP-Newswire. They told the tale of how dark chocolate is better than exercise – that is crap science.

So take your time, dig to find the facts and expose crap science. Start to develop a list of sites that you can actually trust (that’s part of my goal on Cube.Dweller.Fitness). Toss the crap science out with the trash.

Sure we would all love to sit on the couch, watch TV, and eat one ounce of dark chocolate instead of pounding through a kettlebell revolution workout. Choose the workout instead and make it happen.

TED Talk on Exposing Bad Science

I was delighted to find this gem on TED one morning. Dr. Ben Goldacre takes bold claims against the misuse of research in fitness, nutrition, and medicine. Take a look, it is worth it.

His advice is awesome. Dig for the facts. Realize that companies are actively hiding results to make their story appear better. Really think about it, what if over half of the results from a study were hidden. Selectively pick the data that matches the story you’d like to tell. Crazy.

Don’t Take Any Crap

The fitness and nutrition world is filled with poorly designed tests, which either get hidden, or misused. Dig deep to find the facts, expose crap science.

Dark chocolate is delicious, it is a decent form of flavonoids, but is it really better than exercise? No – that’s just crap science.

Have you exposed crap science? Share you tale of crap science.

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Photo by Boz Bros – Dark Chocolate Bar.