Good article, but I take issue with this: “Now, the researchers used some cool statistical tricks to control for these specific variables, but there are hundreds of other factors that could’ve caused the effects that they saw.”

That is true of every single multi-variate study looking at anything, anywhere. Puzzled how you can honestly say, in effect, ‘here is a study with multiple factors, they controlled for some, maybe there are others’ — sure, argue they didn’t properly remove these effects or they handled the wrong effects, or once removed the samples weren’t big enough, etc. which are all normal study challenges and feedback, but to dump the whole thing for what appears to be every concern of every study everywhere, seems odd.

Also, at least the news I read on this was careful to mention it was an observational study

Finally, not sure where how you can end with “But it isn’t healthy.” even if you discard this study; no idea where this comes from and seems far more flimsily thrown out there than the study you are discussing.

Nor the “delicious sugary food” characterization, as to me Chocolate, especially the 75%+ darker varieties I prefer and are more commonly studied, strike me as far, far less sugary than most all other snacks.