Thursday, April 29, 2010

Please Pass The Chocolate



This is for Victor, who sent us the link to a CNN article looking at mood and chocolate consumption: Chocolate and Depression Go Hand and Hand by Denise Mann. So here's the scoop, people eat more chocolate when they are depressed. Mann writes:

Although gorging on chocolate and sweets to beat the blues has become a cliché thanks to sitcoms and romantic comedies, there's been "little prior scientific literature linking chocolate and depression," says the lead author of the study, Dr. Beatrice Golomb, a professor of medicine at the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine. The study, she says, provides evidence to support "the popular perception that when people need a pick-me-up, they pick up chocolate."

It's unclear, however, whether depressed people eat more chocolate simply because they crave it, or whether chocolate consumption itself somehow contributes to a depressed mood.

In the study, Golomb and her colleagues surveyed more than 900 people about their weekly chocolate consumption and their overall diet. They also gauged the moods of the participants using a standard questionnaire used to screen for depression. (People who were taking antidepressants were excluded from the study.)

It's not really clear from the article if the article is talking about people with transient sadness or people with clinical depression, but if there's any link between chocolate and emotional states, then we're happy to link to it on Shrink Rap.

Victo
r: may your salsa win the contest this weekend. And I don't want to hurt your feelings but I've never been able to eat that chocolate bacon bar you gave me.

5 comments:

FunPsych said...

How about some critical analysis of this B.S. instead of just copying and pasting from a CNN article?

- FunPsych

ItsTheWooo said...

FunPsych beat me to it.

Yea...
1) Most chocolate candy is more accurately described as sugar + fat, it is highly likly the majority of so called "chocolate" consumed wasn't even chocolate
2) The ppl in the study weren't even depressed

The Shrink said...

Ah but Dr Shock has kindly stimulated my appetite on this with details of how :

1) Chocolate helps with stress.

2) Chocolate helps our teeth.

3) Chocolate improves maths skills and rate of recovery after exercise, here.

4) Chocolate improves coronary blood flow.

5) Chocolate is protective after a heart attack.

6) Heck, it's even good as makeup.

Okay it's the constituents of dark chocolate that matter, so sugar rich milk chocolate isn't the panacea we might hope it to be. But it's amazing what research there is out there on chocolate!

Midwife with a Knife said...

Mo's bacon bar is awesome. you have to try it!!

Kaliki said...

I hope this wasn't a federally funded study. It seems obvious to me.