14 DAY TRIAL // It’s known as the guilty pleasure we indulge in every time we either want a sweet treat or when we’re in desperate need of a pick-me-up. They don’t call it that for no reason, since chocolate comes laden with calories that can upset our diet, especially if we don’t know when to stop. The good news for all chocaholics out there is that scientists have finally come up with a recipe for chocolate with less calories and, even better, with the same exquisite taste, as the Daily Mail can confirm.
Scientists working on this at the University of Birmingham insist that nothing is lost in terms of taste with the new and improved type of chocolate. It is obtained by means of a method that replaces fat in foods with non-fat substances like water, gel or air. The same method will be later applied to other foods that are considered responsible for the ongoing obesity pandemic, like mayonnaise and junk food.
Aside from the taste, which remains the same, the flavor and smell of the low-fat food are also unaltered, researchers say. Moreover, they’re also working on creating a tasty porridge that should make one feel full for several hours in a row, thus eliminating the need of snacking and, subsequently, the mindless eating some engage in. This “super porridge” should go into production soon, and works “by using a liquid which changes into a gel when it comes into contact with acid in the stomach,” the Mail says.
“It is possible that small, stable, air bubbles designed to resemble oil droplets in terms of their size and physical properties could be used to produce a new generation of low fat foods,” research leader Dr. Philip Cox says of the new type of chocolate, which might easily turn out to be a viable solution for the obesity pandemic. In fact, this is precisely what researchers are going for, now that it’s been tested and proven that simply sending out repeated warnings on the dangers of high-fat food and being overweight is not an efficient method of combating the obesity phenomenon now sweeping the world.
“Bombarding the public with health messages doesn't seem to be working so if we really are to avoid an obesity pandemic we need to open our minds to completely new solutions. Perhaps if we steer publicity budget into this research, the UK could develop an industry to lead the world,” Dickon Ross, editor in chief of the Institution of Engineering and Technology's E&T magazine, adds.