Chocolate is the most widely and frequently
craved food, but is it really addictive?
Chocolate is the most widely and frequently craved food. People
readily admit to being ‘addicted to chocolate’ or willingly
label themselves as ‘chocoholics’. A popular explanation for
this is that chocolate contains mood-enhancing (psychoactive)
ingredients that give it special appeal.
Evidence and logic, however, find little support for this.
Substances present in chocolate which have been highlighted
as potentially pharmacologically significant include serotonin,
tryptophan, phenylethylamine, tyramine and cannabinoids. However,
many of these compounds exist in higher concentrations in other
foods with less appeal than chocolate.
Professor Peter Rogers, from the University of Bristol, UK,
explains: “A more compelling explanation lies in our ambivalent
attitudes towards chocolate – it is highly desired but should
be eaten with restraint (nice but naughty). Our unfulfilled
desire to eat chocolate, resulting from restraint, is thus experienced
as craving, which in turn is attributed to ‘addiction’.”
A further observation is that the most widely preferred chocolate
is milk chocolate and chocolate-covered confectionery. These
contain a lower amount of cocoa solids, and therefore a lower
concentration of potentially psychoactive compounds, than ‘dark’
chocolate which is not so widely craved.
It is therefore far more plausible to suggest that a liking
for chocolate, and its effects on mood, are due mainly to its
principal constituents, sugar and fat, and their related orosensory
and nutritional effects.
