Consumption of ≥1 servings/day did not yield significantly lower risk. Compared to participants who ate 1 oz of chocolate less often than monthly, those who ate it 1–4 times/month, 2–6 times/week and ≥1 time/day had relative risks of being diagnosed with diabetes that were lower by 13% (95% confidence interval: −2%, 25%), 34% (18%, 47%) and 18% (−10%, 38%). These results were not significantly different for males and females. The analysis involved 861 new verified diagnoses of diabetes during 98,543 person-years of follow up (Mean = 13.3 years) among 7802 participants without evidence of a serious chronic disease in the ARIC cohort. The results were robust in that the relative risks were not materially changed in four sensitivity analyses which tested the effects of: 1) excluding participants with evidence of preexisting and preclinical serious chronic disease when their chocolate intake was assessed, as opposed to only excluding participants with evidence of preexisting serious chronic disease; 2) using only chocolate consumption data at exam 1 as predictor, rather than using the data at both exam 1 and 3; 3) including three variables in the causal pathway between chocolate consumption and diabetes risk as extra confounders in the regression model; and 4) adjusting for dietary carbohydrate and fat intake directly instead of by means of an index of dietary quality.