VALDOSTA STATE MAGAZINE 25 This process has made me appreciate research. Now when I read scientific journal articles, I understand the pain, the tears, and the sweat that goes into this. — KATIE PRESLER “ “ THE TEST Eat 20 grams of 70 percent cacao dark chocolate every day. THE RESULTS Dark chocolate,eaten regularly and in the right dose, significantly increased the resting metabolism of test subjects, to the tune of approximately one pound of fat a month. The specific criteria whittled down the applicants significantly, and eventually just under two dozen women were accepted into the study, most of them members of VSU’s soccer, volleyball, basketball, and cross country teams. The instructions for the subjects were simple — eat 20 grams of dark chocolate, which is about the same size as two-thirds of a Hershey’s chocolate bar, every day for a month. They were not allowed to eat any other chocolate, drink milk within an hour of consumption, or eat certain foods high in antioxidants, such as blueberries and strawberries. The participants underwent testing in VSU’s Human Performance Laboratory to measure how much energy they used while at rest and also while exercising on a stationary bike. The metabolic rate was determined by measuring each subject’s oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production. Hershey’s, the same brand that appeared in Presler’s childhood chocolate monster sketches, donated all of the chocolate. Half of the women were assigned to a placebo group and given white crème candy, while the actual treatment group received 70 percent cacao dark chocolate. It was a modified double-blind study, meaning the test subjects didn’t know what group they were a part of — they were only told the study was looking at the effect of chocolate on metabolism, not what kind of chocolate — and Presler didn’t know who got what kind of chocolate. The lack of knowledge in this regard allowed the study to remain free of bias, Webster and Presler said.