Chocolate is good for you! 2

Further to my previous post today's news as the headline "Chocolate lovers 'are more depressive', say experts " or, as they said on the radio "Chocolate Causes Depression." Of course if you read the full article it says nothing of the sort only that people who eat a bar of chocolate or so a week have a slightly higher depression score.

However I stand by my original post for 2 reasons:

1. They research admits it doesn't know if it is cause or effect, people who are depressed may eat chocolate as a mood enhancer.
2. I was only talking about high cocoa chocolate and not the the mass produced bars that make up the majority of the western chocolate consumption.

Here is the link to the article on the BBC News site as it is worth a read:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8644016.stm

Chocolate is good for you!

If, like me, you like good dark chocolate and suffer from depression the news is that it can be good for you.

Yesterday I had another bad day with my depression, not helped by my asthma playing up, which made me wonder whether I was wise not to go back onto the antidepressants. Then the penny dropped - I hadn't had my daily chocolate the day before. Let me explain that. When I was in hospital my wife read an article about depression being helped by eating chocolate - but only dark chocolate which is high in cocoa. She therefore decided that I should have about a third of a bar of good dark chocolate a day - I prefer Green and Black's Dark 85% Organic.

I have just realised that on Saturday I had a very busy day, watching my son play rugby and going to my son-in-law elect's stag night, and forgot my chocolate. Now I have forgotten before and noticed that I didn't feel as good (to put it mildly) the next couple of days. The reason is, when you realise it, obvious - dark chocolate contains serotonin and the antidepresant I was on was meant to work but raising the serotonin level in my brain.

Now, as I said before, the antidressant had all sorts of side effects that stopped me feeling like me but, provided I don't eat too much, the chocolate has the same effect on my mood without the side effects. I realise that everyone is different and this might not work for everyone but for me here it is - my favourite antidepressant:



P.S. This morning I spoke to my GP about this and she agreed the chocolate is right for me but that doesn't mean this will work for everyone; some people will need the tablets either for a short period or permanently.