SAN DIEGO—Women and men eat more chocolate as depressive symptoms increase, suggesting an association between mood and chocolate, according to a new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine examined the relationship of chocolate consumption to mood in an adult study sample of about 1,000 subjects who were not on antidepressant medications and did not have any known cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Participants were asked questions regarding how many servings of chocolate they ate in a week, and were screened using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) to measure mood.
Researchers found that both men and women who had higher depression scores consumed almost 12 servings of chocolate per month; those with lesser depression scores ate about eight servings of chocolate per month; and those with no depression had five servings per month. No differentiation was made between dark and milk chocolate; a medium serving of chocolate was 1 ounce, which is slightly less than an average chocolate candy bar.
“The findings did not appear to be explained by a general increase in caffeine, fat, carbohydrate or energy intake, suggesting that our findings are specific to chocolate,” wrote the researchers. There was also no difference in the consumption of other antioxidant-rich foods, such as fish, coffee, fruits and vegetables between those with depression and those without.
