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Dark chocolate has many benefits in reducing heart disease and protecting your skin from the sun. Now, it seems like you can add an antidepressant to the list.
A new study conducted by UCL examined whether different types of chocolate are badociated with mood disorders and found that dark chocolate helped to relieve depression. This study is the first of its kind to examine the effect on depression and mood depending on the type of chocolate consumed.
Working in collaboration with scientists from the University of Calgary and Alberta Health Services, the researchers evaluated the data from 13,626 adults from the US National Health and Nutrition Survey. They examined the participants' chocolate consumption against the scores of the patient's health questionnaire.
The latter is a questionnaire that badesses depressive symptoms. To make sure that research only measured the influence of chocolate on depression, a range of other factors, such as height, marital status, ethnicity, bad 39, education, household income, physical activity, smoking and chronic health problems, was also adjusted.
The researchers found that people who reported eating dark chocolate in two 24-hour periods had 70% the odds of reporting clinically lower depressive symptoms than those who report not eating chocolate at all. However, no significant link was found between non-black chocolate consumption and depression.
Reduced likelihood of clinically relevant depressive symptoms
"This study provides some evidence that the consumption of chocolate, especially dark chocolate, may be badociated with a reduced likelihood of clinically significant depressive symptoms," said Dr. Sarah Jackson (senior author, Institute of Epidemiology and health care of the UCL).
"However, more research is needed to clarify the direction of causality – depression may cause people to lose interest in chocolate, or other factors make people less likely to eat chocolate. black and become depressed.
"If a causal relationship demonstrating a protective effect of chocolate consumption on depressive symptoms is established, it is important to understand the biological mechanism for determining the type and amount of chocolate consumption for optimal prevention and management. of depression. "
This is not the first study to report that chocolate may have mood enhancing properties. The food contains several psychoactive ingredients that can induce feelings of euphoria.
Phenylethylamine, a neuromodulator responsible for regulating mood, is also found in chocolate. Finally, dark chocolate in particular also reports higher concentrations of flavonoids.
Flavonoids are antioxidant chemicals that fight depression. As such, there are many compelling reasons for chocolate to relieve depression.
The study is published in the journal Depression and anxiety.
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