A new study has found out that people who are suffering from depression tend to eat more chocolate and the amount of chocolate increases with the severity of illness.

Dr Beatrice Golomb of the University of California in San Diego said, “Our study confirms long-held suspicions that eating chocolate is something that people do when they are feeling down”.

About 1000 candidates, who were neither on anti-depressive medications nor had heart disease or diabetes, were studied by the researchers. The researchers looked at their chocolate consumption and their mood.

They were asked about the amount of chocolate they consumed in a week. Their degree of depression was evaluated on a scale known as Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale.

The people who were more depressed ate more chocolates. They consumed almost 12 portions of chocolate in a month, as compared to the candidates with no depression symptoms, who consumed only 5 portions in a month. The study also revealed that the moderately depressed subjects ate eight portions a month.

But, the study failed to differentiate between milk chocolate and dark chocolate. Golomb said, “The findings did not appear to be explained by a general increase in caffeine, fat, carbohydrate or energy intake, suggesting that our findings are specific to chocolate”.

Hence, more research is required to decide the association, and role of chocolate in depression, as cause or cure, shared researchers.