Has anyone invented a time machine so I can go back to all those occasions when my parents informed me that I couldn’t have candy for dinner because it’s not good for you? I need to tell them all about the results of this fascinating new study funded by the National Confectioners Association which says that eating candy frequently is totally cool and probably won’t result in pesky side effects like “elevated waist circumference.”

PopSci points out the delicious findings published in the Nutrition Journal recently, which was paid for by the NCA, a trade group representing the candy, chocolate and gum industry.

Instead, the study has such gems as (bolding ours):

“Frequency of candy consumption was not associated with the risk of obesity, overweight/obesity, elevated waist circumference, elevated skinfold thickness, blood pressure, low density lipoprotein (LDL) or high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, triglycerides, or insulin resistance.”

And then there’s:

“Increased frequency of candy consumption among adults in the United States was not associated with objective measures of adiposity or select cardiovascular risk factors, despite associated dietary differences.”

To be quite fair here, the study itself says it can’t be concluded that “candy consumption does not cause obesity or untoward levels of cardiovascular risk markers” because only frequency of candy consumption was studied, and not how much a person was actually eating of the stuff, among other factors. So it doesn’t say it does cause obesity but it doesn’t say it definitely doesn’t. Get it?

It seems the NCA sees this whole thing as a win, as evidenced by its press release on the topic (again, bolding ours):

“There is a place for little pleasures, such as candy, in life. A little treat in moderation can have a positive impact on mood and satisfaction, and as emerging research suggests, minimal impact on diet and health risk.”

While I wholeheartedly agree and believe in treating myself whenever I so choose (although I no longer want to eat stacks of chocolate drizzled with frosting for dinner), one should definitely take a study funded by the candy industry with a grain of sugar.

Candy pushers pushing the awesomeness of candy via a sponsored study sounds a lot like a headline from The Onion the Consumerist team had a good chuckle over (SPOILER ALERT! NAUGHTY LANGUAGE AHEAD!): “Sponsored Content Pretty Fucking Awesome.”

Candy Totally Won’t Make You Fat, Says Study Funded By Big Candy [PopSci]

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