Sweet and fleeting fix

DEVOURING a bar of chocolate may make you forget your sorrows for those sweet moments it takes to melt on your tongue. But the mood-boosting benefits of chocolate pass as quickly as the experience of eating it, a new study has found.

In an effort to assess chocolate’s supposed antidepressant qualities, the study, published online in March in the Journal of Affective Disorders, reviewed all the research findings ever produced on the relationship between chocolate and mood.

Temporary relief may come from eating chocolate, according to the study, led by Gordon Parker, a professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia. But that fleeting solace is no greater than the emotional lift from eating any carbohydrate, such as cake or potato chips. There is no evidence that eating chocolate removes feelings of depression, the scientists found.

Finally, while people crave chocolate, chocolate cannot cause the type of chemical addictions that alcohol, cigarettes or drugs do, the report determined.

Janet Polivy, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, conducted a chocolate-craving study published last year in the International Journal of Eating Disorders. She deprived patients of either chocolate or vanilla. Those deprived of chocolate had a much harder time.

“Chocolate is the most craved food,” she said. “It does seem to be something special. But there is little evidence that it alters neurotransmitters or mood.”