Re: The survival time of chocolates on hospital wards: covert observational study
It is unfortunate that Gajendragadkar et al did not do a detailed subgroup analysis on the types of chocolates that decayed most rapidly and which types had longer half-lives. They missed a wonderful opportunity to send a message to Nestle that there are too many of the hard chewy ones and not enough of the orange crèmes in Quality Street.
Also the authors state "it is likely that excessive consumption will lead to deleterious effects on population health, outweighing any potential benefits". Perhaps they are not aware of the seminal paper by Messerli published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine showing a very strong correlation between national per capita chocolate consumption and winning Nobel prizes.
1: Messerli FH. Chocolate consumption, cognitive function, and Nobel laureates. N Engl J Med. 2012 Oct 18;367(16):1562-4.
Competing interests:
Preference for Terry's dark chocolate oranges
Rapid Response:
Re: The survival time of chocolates on hospital wards: covert observational study
It is unfortunate that Gajendragadkar et al did not do a detailed subgroup analysis on the types of chocolates that decayed most rapidly and which types had longer half-lives. They missed a wonderful opportunity to send a message to Nestle that there are too many of the hard chewy ones and not enough of the orange crèmes in Quality Street.
Also the authors state "it is likely that excessive consumption will lead to deleterious effects on population health, outweighing any potential benefits". Perhaps they are not aware of the seminal paper by Messerli published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine showing a very strong correlation between national per capita chocolate consumption and winning Nobel prizes.
1: Messerli FH. Chocolate consumption, cognitive function, and Nobel laureates. N Engl J Med. 2012 Oct 18;367(16):1562-4.
Competing interests: Preference for Terry's dark chocolate oranges