Chocolate addiction? How to tell if you’re addicted to chocolate!
I am yet to meet someone – especially a lady but (to be honest) most men as well – who hates chocolate.
We all love chocolate in all its forms.
Maybe it is the aroma,the rich brown color or the taste.
It could also be a combination of all these factors that makes us excited when we think of chocolate.
There are those among us whose affinity for the sweet stuff is beyond normal or average.
They are often called “chocoholics’ in that they enjoy a specially close relationship with their chocolate.
Can you be addicted to chocolate then?
Addiction occurs when you crave something so much that you lose yourself to it.
You let it control and cannot rest unless you have it.
Addicts of a particular substance are dependent on it to achieve happiness or certain highs and therefore find themselves unable to stop. If they are denied their dose, they suffer from withdrawal symptoms such as mood swings.
If an addiction to chocolate were to exist, the cause would be something present in the chocolate and not just chocolate itself.
The culprit in this case is almost certainly sugars and fats.
These two are known to cause the release of “feel good” emotions known as endorphins in the brain which can lead the eater to feel better.
If chocolate is consumed simply to fulfill external basic urges such as hunger then there won’t be a problem.
Using chocolate to feel good about a situation is what will cause you to be dependent on the sweet stuff every time you need to feel good.
In such a scenario, chocolate is used as a feel good agent or a mood lifter when you’re is bored or stressed. It’s a form of comfort eating.
Withdrawal symptoms from chocolate include mood swings and anxiety. This is caused as a result of an emotional attachment to the chocolate instead of just a physical one that happens with other, less addictive, foods.
These symptoms have addiction written all over them but some medical research schools of thought do not believe in the existence of a chocolate addiction.
Whether it is an addiction or not, an unhealthy attachment to any food could cause you health and emotional problems alike.
The health hazards brought about by overconsumption of chocolate are numerous:
It could lead to teeth problems, obesity due to overconsumption of sugar and fat, low levels of energy and even diabetes and heart disease later in life.
Chocolate causes emotional problems as you are dependent on it to be happy.
It might become a way to mask underlaying emotional problems that need to come to the surface to be solved.
The best way is to deal with these root problems first before addressing the chocolate addictions or lack of it.
Chocolate should be treated more like an occasional treat than a regular snack.
The less you take of it, the more you forget the appeal of chocolate and you can avoid it the better you can solve the ‘addiction’.
Avoid the chocolate section in the supermarket and do your best not to keep any around the house or office.
You might be tempted to justify chocolate intake on account of its proven benefits but this only further points to the existence of a disorder. Sorry!
Whether an addiction or not there is a chocolate addiction, an unhealthy attachment is well,unhealthy. It is best to deal with it.
