BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

There has finally been some health research conducted that we can all appreciate.

Researcher Dr. Franz Messerli has found a link between chocolate consumption per capita by a country and its number of Nobel Prize winners.

Messerli, a New York cardiologist, examined data from major chocolate producers on their sales in 23 countries, and saw "a surprisingly powerful correlation," according to Sci-Tech Today.

Based on population, Switzerland led in chocolate consumption and Nobel Prizes, while the U.S., the Netherlands, Ireland, France, Belgium and Germany were around the middle, and China, Japan and Brazil trailed.

According To Medical Daily, Messerli said that consumption of flavanols, an ingredient found in wine and in chocolate, increased cognitive performance.

"I started plotting this in a hotel room in Katmandu, and I could not believe my eyes," Messerli said to Reuters. “All the countries lined up neatly on a graph, with higher chocolate intake tied to more laureates.”

He also calculated that it would take about 14 ounces of chocolate being eaten by each person every year to come up with another Nobel Prize winner. That would be the equivalent of nine Hershey bars, but we’ll do what we have to do in the interest of science.

Messerli admitted that the idea of a correlation between chocolate and the Nobels was absurd, but the data was legitimate and shows that science is fallible.

The doctor confesses to eating chocolate every day.