People do not become addicted to chocolate but they do "crave it."
Chocolate is irresistible partly because we know we're not supposed to have too much, says Peter Rogers of the University of Bristol.
Presenting his theory recently at the annual BA Festival of Science held at the University of York, United Kingdom, Rogers said people readily label themselves chocoholics, due to the assumption that chocolate has mood-enhancing ingredients.
There is little evidence to support that idea, Rogers said. The stuff in chocolate said to be pharmacologically significant — serotonin, tryptophan, phenylethylamine, tyramine and cannabinoids — exist in higher concentrations in other foods with less appeal than chocolate.
"A more compelling explanation lies in our ambivalent attitudes towards chocolate," Rogers said. "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.'"
Milk chocolate and chocolate-covered candies, the most popular forms of chocolate, contain less cocoa solids, and therefore a lower concentration of potentially psychoactive compounds, than dark chocolate. So, Rogers argues, chocolate's appeal and its effects on mood are likely due mainly to its main ingredients, sugar and fat.
Source:Xinhua/agencies
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