Chocolate – Not an addiction

Countless are the time when I’ve said I’m addicted to chocolate. Just earlier this week I actually throw away one and a half bar since I couldn’t keep it in the house. It really doesn’t matter how full I am or what mood I might be in if someone offers me chocolate I’ll eat until everything is gone, i.e. an addiction.

Well, earlier this week Peter Rogers, a psychologist at the University of Bristol, concluded that cravings and not being able to restain chocolate is not an an addiction.

"Food behavior can look like addictive behavior in extreme situations but chocolate does not fit these criteria," Rogers told a meeting sponsored by the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

Instead, a social attitude that chocolate is "naughty but nice" may actually drive people to see chocolate as a forbidden pleasure and desire it even more, Rogers said.

"In other words, chocolate is a highly desirable food, but which according to social norms should be eaten with restraint," he said. "However, attempting to resist the desire to eat chocolate only causes thoughts about chocolate to become more prominent, consequently heightening the desire."

It is a statement from a psychologist, but I actually think he’s on to something. Whenever I talk to people about my chocolate addiction we all laugh a bit guilty, because we all eat too much chocolate from time from time. At that very moment it’s lovely, but in the long run it’s not good for you. Indeed a forbidden pleasure.