Did you know that chocolate is the most consumed food in the world? If you thought, “yes I did know that!” then I would be highly disappointed because I just made that up. I’m pretty sure rice or something is the most consumed. But my point is chocolate should be the most consumed food. It’s brilliant! I’m convinced anyone who doesn’t like chocolate is evil. And if you’re one of those evil beings then leave 🙂
Welcome back everyone to another article on Psychology 101! And if you haven’t guessed this weeks topic is going to be about chocolate!
I’m sure you’re all wondering what on earth chocolate has to do with psychology but don’t fret my friends because you’re about to find out!
In psychology there are a few different ways to look at our minds. There’s the sociocultural perspective, cognitive perspective and the biological perspective. Chocolate has 350 different chemicals inside it (I can’t even count that high!) This article will mainly talk about how these chemicals can effect our brain in a biological sense. If you like science then keep reading! If you don’t like science, you should still keep reading! It’s really interesting! (and that’s coming from a student who only takes ESS).
Okay now that we’ve got that covered what positive effect can chocolate have?
First of all, some scientists believe that chocolate makes us happy! Many people have told me that when they are sad they eat chocolate to feel better (and when I say many people I mean myself).
The chemical that causes this effect is called Phenylethylamine. (Wow that’s super hard to read, I’m going to re-name it Phineas @all scientists). It generates a feeling of happiness and well-being and just overall gives you a zen like quality. Theobromine is also a chemical in chocolate and this can act like an anti-depressant (but please don’t take chocolate in replacement of your meds kids – I don’t want to be responsible for a bunch of angry psychiatrists).
So…can we just hand out chocolate to the entire world so we can all be happy forever and ever?
Unfortunately no, chocolate isn’t going to cure all the sadness in the world. Actually…as well as causing happiness chocolate can cause a lot of negative emotions in people such as:
- higher levels of anxiety.
- anger and rage.
- cravings and addiction.
Most of these feelings are actually caused by the same chemical that causes the happy feeling: Phineas! (Honestly that chemical needs to calm down and rethink its life). Also some psychologists have said that many of their patients who use chocolate to make themselves feel happy experience strong feelings of guilt after consuming it. This is most likely because chocolate is full of sugar and people think it’s really bad for you and makes you fat (actually chocolate can be pretty good for your heart but lets not talk about that I’m getting off topic).
Now I bet you’re wondering whether or not you should continue eating chocolate.
My answer is yes! Please do! I’m certainly not going to stop! (pfft I’m not letting anxiety, rage and addiction defeat me!) But in all seriousness this article isn’t supposed to warn you about the dangers of chocolate. Though some people do experience those symptoms, in actual fact many other people do not. At the end of the day only we can determine whether chocolate (or anything in life actually) effects us positively or negatively. Like I said in my last two articles the human brain is complex! Our brains aren’t all the same! If a psychologist says humans are supposed to act this way and you act that way, it’s okay! Maybe you’re special! (Or weird!) Anyway what I’m trying to say is eat chocolate, don’t eat chocolate, be happy, live your life and don’t do drugs..or something. Sorry I don’t know how motivational speeches work. Thank you for reading (buy me chocolate), Bye!
Sources:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/comfort-cravings/201110/the-3-minute-effect-chocolate
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-brain-food/201011/chocolate-the-good-the-bad-and-the-angry
KIS Today 