It occur to me that every time I had a piece of chocolate I felt happier, but why? Some scientist and researchers say that eating chocolate can release endorphins, which are chemicals that make us feel good. The act of eating chocolate is hedonistic, when we eat chocolate we gain feelings of pleasure, comfort, and gratification. There has been studies that examine the link between chocolate and happiness. Even thou scientist have not yet discovered what causes the relationship between chocolate and happiness these studies have found some type of correlations. I’m going to list two of them here:

• “A 2007 study surveyed 1,367 men, all in their 70’s with similar socioeconomic backgrounds. The questions were about health, satisfactions in life and emotions like happiness and loneliness. They were also asked, what type of candy they preferred, the ones that said chocolate showed lower frequencies of depression and loneliness, also they had a more optimistic outlook of life.”

• “According to a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, people who felt depressed eat about 55% more chocolate than non-depressed people. Dr. Beatrice Golomb surveyed more than 900 people about their weekly chocolate consumption and their overall diet.”

“We want chocolate in time of stress, anxiety, pain, and so on. Chocolate is a natural analgesic or pain killer.” Adam Drewnowski of the University of Michigan. Some people eat chocolate as a form of self-medication for depression or may simply be comfort food. The more depressed you are the more chocolate you eat. It’s not certain, it may or it may not be true, but what I know is that sometimes when I eat chocolate, I feel more happy, maybe it is because of the sugar rush, maybe it is because its true that chocolate makes you happy. Or maybe happiness is “getting what you want, when you want it” and of course if you want chocolate and then you eat some chocolate, you’re going to be happy because you got it.

Did you know that…?

• Chocolate contains substances that might mimic the effects of marijuana.

&

• Some pharmacies have happy pills made out of chocolate.

It may not be proven but if eating chocolate makes you happy, like it makes me happy, you might as well just eat it.