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Those that feel that chocolate makes them feel better when they are down in the dumps are in good company as recent reports have claimed that depression and chocolate are linked. It has been concluded that depressed people tend to eat more chocolate then those who are not. The research was conducted by the University of California and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine and followed 931 men and women who were not on antidepressants at the time of the research.
The result
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The research required the 931 individuals to record how many times a week they ate chocolate. The individuals also had to undergo the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) test where it was found that those who tested positive for depression ate an average of 8.4 servings per month whilst those that tested positive for major depression consumed an average of 11.8 servings a month. This was contrasted with the people that tested negative for depression who only ate an average of 5.4 servings a month. The results were similar with both men and women.
The link
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Although it is evident that there is a connection between depression and chocolate the research has not discovered whether chocolate is the cure or cause of depression. The researches gave three conclusions as to why chocolate and depression are linked, one being that chocolate is a form of mood-booster that depressed people crave in order to feel better. Research done on rats has confirmed this theory but no research on humans has proved this yet. Depression could also stimulate chocolate cravings without having any real benefits as the people that were studied did not depict any improvement after eating chocolate. The third reason which most people would hate to hear is that chocolate could be the cause of or contribute to depression as those who ate more chocolate were more depressed.
It is impossible to say at this point the definite reason as to why depression and chocolate are linked as long-term research has to be done on the participants before any conclusion can be reached.
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