17 January 2012

Just last week an article appeared on Sustainable Scotland on a favourite theme – the benefits to our mental and physical health of walking, especially in the great green outdoors, but round and round a big shopping centre if that’s all that’s available. However I might have to revise my whole attitude to walking – and I do a fair bit myself. We have been told that walking releases the “feel good” hormones – endorphin, serotonin and dopamine – which is de-stressing, cheering us up and making us more positive.  

And I am quite sure that these benefits of walking are genuine. But every silver cloud has a lining, there are always unintended consequences of seemingly good actions. I have just – genuinely, just five minutes ago – come across some research that suggests that walking can be hugely harmful to our enjoyment of life, or at least one particular and important component of many people’s wellbeing and comfort. It certainly is to mine! I refer to the consumption of chocolate.

Adrian Taylor is Professor of Exercise and Health Psychology at the University of Exeter. He has published research which purports to show that walking reduces the consumption of chocolate. I’ll say that again – walking reduces the consumption of chocolate. Specifically a 15-minute walk can cut snacking at work by half. Even in stressful situations workers eat only half as much chocolate as they normally would after this short burst of physical activity. According to the Professor, “We know that snacking on high calorie foods, like chocolate, at work can become a mindless habit and can lead to weight gain over time. We often feel that these snacks give us an energy boost, or help us deal with the stress of our jobs, including boredom. People often find it difficult to cut down on their daily treats but this study shows that by taking a short walk, they are able to regulate their intake by half.”

Of course it is a good thing that walking improves our mood and energy levels. And it’s good that walking can combat depression and, as Taylor has shown in previous research, counter addictive cravings such as for nicotine. But eating chocolate is surely a good thing. I have conducted my life on that principle ever since I have had a choice in the matter. If I believed for a minute that healthy walking exercise reduced not only my desire for chocolate but my consumption of it (in or out of work) – white chocolate Toblerone and orange and biscuit Galaxy are my current favourites – I would give up walking and become a couch potato. Then I would get obese. Is that what Professor Taylor wants by publishing this research? Sometimes in the public interest the results of scientific research should be suppressed. This is perhaps such a case.

Some people will undoubtedly believe what they read about the reduction of chocolate consumption caused by walking and they will reduce their walking and, and as I have suggested, become fat and unfit and possibly slobbish and slothish (it’s easy for you to say!) But remember, this is a research result from a small sample of people conducted in conditions which attempt to replicate – but can never faithfully do so – a real life situation. It is a theory: it may be wrong. I shall choose to think it is and continue walking and eating chocolate, both pre-walking chocolate and post-walking chocolate. In fact, after posting this article, I shall go home and pig out on chocolate!

For further information about Professor Taylor’s research see University of Exeter, and Daily Mail.
See also recent Sustainable Scotland articles about walking increasing the size of your brain: Growing your brain is a walk in the park;  and walking reducing the risk of cancer: Walk, you loafing sloths - or die! 

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