The Chocolate Diet – A Scientific Hoax Goes Viral

Science 52' 2015 HD

Get slimmer by eating chocolate - how scientific studies will make us believe the stupidest things!
Day in day out we are bombarded by all kinds of promises on how to lose weight, almost all of which fail to deliver. Of the millions of dieters, only a handful will have long-term success, and yet there are countless studies claiming the opposite.
Leading weight loss companies happily confront dieters with the scientifically backed claim that failing a diet would be their own fault. After all, world-renowned experts of all fields have proven the effectiveness of weight loss programs. Or have they?
On their journey through Germany and France, Diana Löbl and Peter Onnecken investigate how the weight loss industry systematically buy scientific research and use it in their favor.
Time and time again dubious studies are being published and serve only one purpose: fuelling the multi billion euro weight loss industry.
German experts point the finger at a cartel of nutritionists who recommend questionable weight loss diets and promise healthy results based on questionable short-term studies. Similar results cannot be detected in long-term studies. And yet these studies find their way into well-respected publications and subsequently motivate physicians to prescribe those diets to their patients.
This groundbreaking documentary shows just how effectively science is being misused by the industry. The authors of this film publish their own weight-loss study, which is so absurd that really no one should take it seriously. However, shortly after the publication it is clear that the media are picking up on the incredible story of how eating chocolate will help you lose weight. It is only a question of time until everybody will believe that chocolate is the best weight loss accelerator of all times!