LOS ANGELES — Over-indulging in chocolate could be a marker for depression, researchers say.
Researchers at UC San Diego and UC Davis examined chocolate consumption and other dietary intake patterns among 931 men and women who were not using antidepressants. They were also given a depression screening test. Those who screened positive for possible depression consumed an average of 8.4 ounces of chocolate candy per month compared with 5.4 ounces per month among people who were not depressed.
When the researchers controlled for other dietary factors that could be linked to mood — such as caffeine, fat and carbohydrate intake — they found that only chocolate consumption correlated with mood symptoms.
It’s not clear how the two are linked, the authors wrote. It could be that depression stimulates chocolate cravings as a form of self-treatment. Or that some physiological mechanism, such as stress, drives both depression and chocolate craving.
“It’s unlikely that chocolate makes people depressed,” said Marcia Levin Pelchat, a psychologist who studies food cravings at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. “Most people believe the beneficial effects of chocolate are on mood. . . . You eat chocolate, it makes you feel good; and sometimes when you’re feeling badly it occurs to you, ‘Gee, if I eat some chocolate I might feel better.’ ”
