UK Edition
Dark chocolate lowers risk of depression, study suggests
It is food news guaranteed to put a smile on your face.
Scientists have found that eating dark chocolate appears to lower the risk of depression by four fold.
While 7.6 per cent of the 13,000 people surveyed reported depressive symptoms, just 1.5 per cent of the chocolate eaters did.
The study by University College London (UCL), the University of Calgary and Alberta Health Services Canada, also found that the people who consumed the most of any chocolate - between 3.6oz (104g) and 16oz (454g) - were also 57 per cent less likely to report depressive symptoms.
Lead author Dr Sarah Jackson, of UCL’s Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care, said: “This study provides some evidence that consumption of chocolate, particularly dark chocolate, may be associated with reduced odds of clinically relevant depressive symptoms.
“However further research is required to clarify the direction of causation – it could be the case that depression causes people to lose their interest in eating chocolate, or there could be other factors that make people both less likely to eat dark chocolate and to be depressed.
“Should a causal relationship demonstrating a protective effect of chocolate consumption on depressive symptoms be established, the biological mechanism needs to be understood to determine the type and amount of chocolate consumption for optimal depression prevention and management.”
The study is the first to examine the association with depression according to the type of chocolate consumed.
The team assessed data from 13,626 adults from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Participants’ chocolate consumption was assessed against their scores on the Patient Health Questionnaire, which assesses depressive symptoms.
A range of other factors including height, weight, marital status, ethnicity, education, household income, physical activity, smoking and chronic health problems were also taken into account to ensure the study only measured chocolate’s effect on depressive symptoms.
After adjusting for these factors, it was found that individuals who reported eating any dark chocolate in two 24-hour periods had 70 per cent lower odds of reporting clinically relevant depressive symptoms in the previous two weeks than those who reported not eating chocolate at all.
Most recent figures show that around 19.7 per cent of people in Britain aged 16 and over showed symptoms of anxiety or depression.
Chocolate contains a number of psychoactive ingredients which produce a feeling of euphoria similar to that of cannabinoid, found in cannabis.
It also contains phenylethylamine, a neuromodulator which is believed to be important for regulating people’s moods.
Dark chocolate also has a higher concentration of flavonoids, antioxidant chemicals which lower inflammation and can prevent the onset of depression.
However British scientists urged caution about the findings, suggesting that the decision to eat dark chocolate could be linked to other health factors. For example people who choose dark chocolate may be more health conscious in general, which is known to protect against depression.
Depressed people are also more likely to crave more sugary fatty foods and so could be less likely to pick a dark alternative when choosing chocolate.
Prof Anthony Cleare, Professor of Psychopharmacology and Affective Disorders, at King's College London, said: “Although there is an association between lower rates of depression and higher intake of dark chocolate, the main problem with the study is that it cannot tell us whether it is the dark chocolate protecting against depression or whether it is depression affecting the consumption of dark chocolate.
“We know that depression has marked effects on overall appetite and on the type of foods people crave, and it is just as plausible that the direction of causation is the reverse to the authors' interpretation.”
“It is also just a snapshot of chocolate consumption over 24 hours, reliant on individuals' memories, and depression has marked effects on impairing memory. Thus, those with depression may have a less accurate recollection of their intake the day before.”
The research was published in the journal Depression and Anxiety.