I would venture to say that very few people don't like the chocolate, perhaps not everyone is a regular consumer of it, but sooner or later they gladly appreciate a certain amount. With the advent of Christmas then, the chocolate becomes a protagonist, it is almost practically impossible not to eat it when almost all the shops offer the most diverse packages and types. But ... The chocolate is it a hidden enemy that leads us to addiction or is it simply a great anti-stress remedy? There is an English term for people addicted to chocolate: “Chocoholics”. There is even a site where you can make a test that will tell us whether or not we are addicted to chocolate. A lot of scientific evidence regarding substances contained in it supports the theory of chocolate that would be addictive. However, it should be considered that the same substances are also present in large quantities in other foods which are not recognized as having the role of generating addiction. Professor Rogers dell 'University of Bristol in the UK it offers us an explanation that is useful to keep in mind when considering the addictive power of chocolate: our ambivalent attitudes towards the chocolate (desire and rejection at the same time) are what generate addiction. Furthermore, to corroborate his hypothesis we are pointed out that the majority of people prefer packaged chocolate, many times mixed with other substances that reinforce the power of the main components that generate addiction. In short, it would be easier to say that the chocolate cause addiction and give the responsibility for this to an eminently chemical and biological mechanism, totally foreign to our will, rather than recognizing that we are not able to control our impulses, nor with respect to the chocolate and even less with respect to other spheres of our life. Rogers, in essence, it proposes to us that well beyond the chemical causes of addiction that can give the chocolate, the psychological mechanism by which we locate the references of control somewhere outside of us is the main cause of the uncontrolled consumption of chocolate. The idea is not entirely nonsense, especially because we know that every physical process has its psychological counterpart. On the other hand, completely changing the discourse, a clinical essay recently published in the Journal of Proteome Research carried out with 30 people aged between 18 and 35 years, states that ingesting 40 grams of chocolate for two weeks it reduces the level of stress starting with the regular production of cortisol and catecholamines, which are excreted with the urine. The antioxidants present in the chocolate they will also reduce the risk of heart disease and help metabolism. Thus, the chocolate, like many other foods or substances, it shows us its positive effects but also its dark sides, nevertheless, we must remember that self-control and self-determination are essential to better manage our diet.
