Everyday mood and emotions after eating a chocolate bar or an apple (Macht & Dettmer 2006 ¹)

Craving, namely an intense desire to eat a particular food, often occurs in negative mood states and frequently precedes intake of chocolate. In particular chocolate characteristics compounded with monthly hormonal fluctuations and mood swings among women highlights a strong power in influencing mental and emotional health.
Sensory pleasure (occurring shortly before, during and immediately after eating), hunger reduction (occurring some time later), and activation induced by stimulating ingredients of cocoa might be possible mediators of chocolate-induced emotional changes. Moreover people are driven to eat less by internal energy deficits and more by the anticipatory pleasure of eating.

Design: Repeated measures design with food (chocolate vs. apple vs. nothing) and time after eating as factors.
Sample: 37 healthy, normal-weight German women between 19 and 30 years of age
Outcome: self-reported subjective state of hunger, mood, and activation (e.g., active/energetic)
Each individual had randomly a different sequence of two food conditions on each day. Among other important variables desire to eat was also recorded.

From tests with average over time change scores

Chocolate and apple compared to eating nothing
Chocolate and apple reduced HUNGER to a greater extent than eating nothing (p-value less than 0.001) Better MOOD levels after eating chocolate compared to eating nothing (p-value less than 0.001), and after eating an apple (p-value equal to 0.003).
Furthermore eating chocolate also increased JOY compared to the nothing condition and in some women eating chocolate was also followed by GUILT, probably induced by negative food-related cognitions based on culturally determined attitudes to slimness and body weight.
Both the chocolate bar and the apple increased ACTIVATION.


Chocolate compared to apple
Chocolate reduced HUNGER to a greater extent than the apple (p-value equal to 0.007) MOOD elevation was more pronounced after eating chocolate than after eating the apple (p-value less than 0.001)

In sum chocolate increased activation, reduced tiredness, elevated mood and elicited joy. Increase of positive emotions was most pronounced 5 and 30 min after eating. Thus, early mechanisms such as sensory pleasure possibly contribute to a greater extent to emotional effects of chocolate than late mechanisms such as neurochemical changes. Hunger reduction was comparable 5 min after eating the chocolate bar or the apple, mood elevation instead was far more pronounced after eating chocolate.