New York – When Dina Khiry is feeling a bit down, she reaches for chocolate. “I like Reese’s peanut butter cups, Hershey’s bars, and chocolate cake batter,” says the 24-year-old public relations associate. “I feel better in the moment — and then worse later on, when I realize that I just consumed thousands of calories.”
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Khiry’s emotional relationship with chocolate isn’t uncommon, new research suggests. According to a study published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, people who feel depressed eat about 55 percent more chocolate than their non-depressed peers. And the more depressed they feel, the more chocolate they tend to eat.
Although gorging on chocolate and sweets to beat the blues has become a cliché thanks to sitcoms and romantic comedies, there’s been “little prior scientific literature linking chocolate and depression,” says the lead author of the study, Dr. Beatrice Golomb, a professor of medicine at the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine. The study, she says, provides evidence to support “the popular perception that when people need a pick-me-up, they pick up chocolate.”
It’s unclear, however, whether depressed people eat more chocolate simply because they crave it, or whether chocolate consumption itself somehow contributes to a depressed mood.
well. you cant have your chocolate and eat it too.
Don’t sell me this non-sense,, there is nothing better than a starbucks with a torino stick choclate,,,
She eats Hershey’s? of course she’s depressed it’s not Cholov Yisroel!!!
i recently got an email from a friend in Miami claiming that most of the stuff in starbucks is not kosher. Even the ready coffee the machinery is washed together with the treif utensils. I always knew that the frapechinos were treif the guy at the counter always tells someone ordering it if he sees the person is a frum yid he says sorry that not kosher!!! Since that email i have stopped going to my local starbucks where i was a daily coffee drinker they say same story with 7/11 please do ck before drinking this stuff ask a sheila.
i wonder who sponsored this study? it must have been a genius that figured out that overindulging in anything leads to depression.
This probably is in no way related to the possibility that depressed people indulge in sweet foods
Cacao has one of the highest levels of antioxidants of any natural food. It makes sense that the depressed will seek out chocolate. It’s good for them and helps them heal.
I have a simple hypothesis about this. Here’s a chocolate-depression link. You get depressed, you want some chocolate. The more depressed, the more choc. Too much makes you fat, which exacerbates the depression. Ergo more chocolate. And so the cycle continues. I’m not a scientist, just an itinerant writer for a hip Jewish media hub in Kfar Saba, Israel. Ask me about it. We haven’t yet created any content about chocolate and depression, but I like that you guys got the ball rolling!
Just another study that confuses correlation with cause. Interesting that in the bat of an eyelash, someone here managed to treif up a commonly patronized coffee chain. Looks like the yetzer hara to find a chumrah is stronger even than the craving for chocolate.
I hate chocolate but I feel so desperatly depressed that I think I will need some at home ASAP :'(
I don’t understand why must we run to starbucks to get coffee? Can’t you either make it yourself with instant coffee or go to a Kosher place?
They wash the stuff with treif????? how can anyone eat there, drink there etc…..
I am not a coffee drinker but I do drink hot coco and wouldn’t even walk into a place where there might be a question. If a Kosher supermarket would put questionable items on a shelf wouldn’t we all say can’t eat there, shop there etc? How about the kosher pizza stores or take out foods if there is even one time with a question we all stop eating there . . . something doesn’t make sense.
What makes starbucks exempt from that?
I think I am missing something here . .. . . .
is that why on valentines day chocolate sales go through the roof? so many depressed women. wow.
I think chocolate does have health benefits, but it definitely plays with the chemicals in your brain, for good or bad I don’t know. It might help ease depression. I know a couple of people who realized it makes them irritable, not immediately after eating, that feels good. The irritability comes hours-days later. That is probably more common than people realize.
I haven’t been able to eat chocolate for three years already. I still dream about it. Trust me, it’s a hard addiction to get over and it plays with the brain.
This is a lie put out by the ECO Global Warming people. They don’t want us to eat meat, salt, sugar, candy, soda, cigarettes or anything not organic. They are the ones against Kosher schitah and Bris Milah. Now they want to destroy the chocolate industry.
No. 19. It , plays not only with the chemicals in your brain , it plays havoc with the chemicals that keep you regular .