Chocolate Loves Depression

I have news for all you chocolate lovers! Researchers showed that people tend to eat more chocolate as depressive symptoms increase, suggesting an association between mood and chocolate. Now this link is not clear, as the role of chocolate in depression (cause or cure?) has not been determined yet.

Dr. Golomb from the University of California says that this study "confirms long-held suspicions that eating chocolate is something that people do when they are feeling down. Because it was a cross sectional study, meaning a slice in time, it did not tell us whether the chocolate decreased or intensified the depression."

No differentiation was made between dark and milk chocolate. About 1,000 people who were not on antidepressant medications were asked questions regarding how many servings of chocolate they ate in a week. The researchers found no differences between the two sexes. The people with higher depression scores consumed almost 60% more chocolate that the ones that were found not to be depressed at all.

A 2007 study in the British Journal of Psychiatry showed that half of 3,000 people with depression said that chocolate actually made them feel better.

Chocolate might boost your mood or might trigger depression. The results are yet inconclusive. The best thing to do for now would be to enjoy your chocolate but to eat it in moderation.