Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Research Shows That Chocolate is Not Addictive


Hmmm...I am not sure that I believe this one...


People often say they are addicted to chocolate, but few studies have ever shown any evidence for true addiction to this widely craved sweet.

Rather, chocolate is irresistible partly because we know we're not supposed to have too much, says Peter Rogers of the University of Bristol in England.

Presenting his idea Tuesday at the annual BA Festival of Science held at the University of York, also in England, Rogers noted that people readily label themselves chocoholics, with 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.'"
They believe that the attraction is the sugar and fat.?

SOURCE

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