Is Chocolate a Drug ?

* LifeStyle


Researchers at Oxford University have recently published a study on chocolate and characterized the reaction of the human body to it as being similar to that caused by drugs.

The changes that eating chocolate brings to the brain are identical to those triggered by a quantity of drug to someone who is addicted.

There have been made a series of tests on eight people who were fond of chocolate and another eight who were not really keen on it. The participants were shown photographs of appetizing desserts made with chocolate and then were offered something to drink containing chocolate. In the meantime, their brains were monitored.

The results were amazing: Those who loved chocolate showed much brain activity while they were eating. Certain zones were activated in their cortex, namely the ones responsible for ‘pleasure’. The others did not show much activity in their brains.

The conclusion of the researchers was this: visualizing our favourite food causes the stimulation of the brain sectors related to addiction.

So, when we decide to go on a diet, we must avoid looking at food, especially at that kind of food that is not recommendable to the diet. Similarly, when a person eats without properly looking at what he or she is eating, in the dark, he or she will take in a smaller quantity of the food, because a much more powerful stimulus will appear when the image of the food is associated with its taste.

What does this experiment teach us? When we mean to keep our weight within limits and choose the kind of food that is appropriate to our needs for a certain period of time, we had better try to ‘reduce the enjoyment’ that eating brings by simply ‘avoiding’ to look at the plate! Eating in the dark is not quite a desirable solution, but some people might have to take it into account!