Chocolate for anti-depressant
Does chocolate produce an improvement in mood through some kind of it-takes-me-back-to-my-childhood emotional reaction, or does it alter chemicals in the brain in the same way that a psycho-active drug does?
A scientific field of inquiry into the causes of cravings has found no more potent object of desire than chocolate. To women, it’s the anti-depressant. One internationally recognised drug researcher says people with “an intolerance of personal rejection and a particular vulnerability to romantic detachment” eat chocolate to relieve anxiety, anger, tension or depression (especially after a broken love affair).
One study found 90 per cent of these chocoholic ’self-medicators’ were women.
But why? The relationship between menstrual cycles and food cravings has been obvious for a long time: women eat more and crave more in the few days before their periods. This is the time of the dreaded PMT, when levels of the hormone progesterone are low. And this is where the search for a psycho-active ingredient in chocolate begins.
Chocolate has phenylethylamine, or PEA, a substance which raises heart rate and blood pressure - similar to the feeling of falling in love. Normally PEA is broken down by a digestive enzyme before it has a chance to get near the brain.
But now there is evidence that this enzyme is low in premenstrual women.
Whatever the chemical reaction, chocolate is a special sensual pleasure. Salami and cheese also have high levels of PEA, but somehow a cheese and salami sandwich just can’t compete with a truffle when you’re down.
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Dec 14th 2007 at 11:00 am
[…] other fruit or vegetable. Things that many of us enjoy but try our best to avoid, like coffee and chocolate, an occasional drink or a between-meal snack, have been re-examined by medical researchers with new […]