Android KitKat and M&Ms: Google's dark little secrets

Google has a dark little secret that is affecting the entire company, its addiction to chocolates like M&M and KitKat.

Execs at Google last year started noticing that they had an M&M dilemma. Workers were downing too much of the free candy at the office and it was affecting health and productivity. Google then launched Operation M&M, a special ops group of Ph.D's that conducted surveys on snacking patterns and collected data on the proximity of employees to M&M bins.

The behavioral scientists decided to put chocolates in opaque containers and then put dried fruits and other healthful snacks in glass jars. Google's New York office found that employees consumed 3.1 million fewer calories from M&Ms over a seven week period. That equals nine vending machine-size boxes of M&Ms for each of the office's 2,000 workers.

Google has said that they're not sure if the M&M project directly led to slimmer bodies and happier employees, but considering how junk food affects the body, it couldn't have hurt. The New York office has four cafeterias and 35 mini-kitchens throughout building. Google has a rule that a worker should be no more than 200 feet away from free food at all times.

Google's fascination with chocolate seems to run deeper than just with M&Ms. The company announced the other day that version 4.4 of Android will be called "KitKat" instead of Key Lime Pie as previously announced. The new Android OS will be released next month. The reason Google chose KitKat is because the Google kitchen is stocked with it for late-night coding sessions.

Is that the truth? Or is there something else going on at Google? Who's calling the shots now?

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