Study found eating dark chocolate can help with overeating

Women who ate dark chocolate rather than milk or white, were less likely to overeat later. Photo / 123RF

Everyone knows you shouldn't snack on chocolate just before a meal.

But if you really must, scientists have revealed that tucking into some types may be better for you than others.

Research found that women who ate dark chocolate rather than milk or white, were less likely to overeat later, reports Daily Mail.

The study, reported in journal Appetite, added: "Of course, these results do not intend to promote the consumption of chocolate for weight management, but rather show that for women that do consume chocolate, dark chocolate may be the chocolate of preference."

Over three weeks, a Liverpool John Moores University study gave volunteers similar-sized samples of 80 per cent cocoa plain, 35 per cent cocoa milk and white chocolate.

Researchers then measured how much the volunteers - all women aged 50 to 65 - ate during a meal and asked how they felt.

The study found all the volunteers claimed to be comfortably full despite eating significantly less after dark chocolate.

They consumed only 323 calories, compared with 404 calories for those who ate milk chocolate.

And those who had white chocolate then ate 440 calories.

Snacking on an extra 100 calories a day - the equivalent of a biscuit - would add 1lb in weight every 35 days.

It is thought compounds called polyphenols, of which there are more in dark chocolate, slow the digestion of carbohydrates in the stomach and so reduce appetite.