1274025713022826125I Fooled Millions Into Thinking Chocolate Helps Weight Loss. Here’s How.

io9

“Slim by Chocolate!” the headlines blared. A team of German researchers had found that people on a low-carb diet lost weight 10 percent faster if they ate a chocolate bar every day. It made the front page of Bild, Europe’s largest daily newspaper, just beneath their update about the Germanwings crash. From there, it ricocheted around the internet and beyond, making news in more than 20 countries and half a dozen languages. It was discussed on television news shows. It appeared in glossy print, most recently in the June issue of Shape magazine (“Why You Must Eat Chocolate Daily”, page 128). Not only does chocolate accelerate weight loss, the study found, but it leads to healthier cholesterol levels and overall increased well-being. The Bild story quotes the study’s lead author, Johannes Bohannon, Ph.D., research director of the Institute of Diet and Health: “The best part is you can buy chocolate everywhere.”

I am Johannes Bohannon, Ph.D. Well, actually my name is John, and I’m a journalist. I do have a Ph.D., but it’s in the molecular biology of bacteria, not humans. The Institute of Diet and Health? That’s nothing more than a website.

Herdy-faces

 Sur une note plus joyeuse: Maryn McKenna a interviewé James Rebanks, un berger du nord de l’Angleterre 

Shepherd of Social Media Sheds His Secret Identity

National Geographic

Rebanks is an unusual protagonist: the oldest son of a sheep farmer who was in turn the oldest son of a sheep farmer, he had no use for school and left at 16 years old to get back to the fells. But he reversed course in his 20s and won a scholarship to Oxford University, where he studied history. Once done, he worked as hard to return to farming as he briefly did to leave it.

En plus de ses moutons, Rebanks, sous son pseudonyme @HerdyShepherd1, rassemble 63 000 abonnés sur Twitter, grâce à un savant mélange de photographies, d’analyse et de vulgarisation.