Lift Your Mood By Eating Chocolate

Chocolate is the sweet elixir that soothes not only our sweet tooth, but sometimes the mood and soul. Its rich, warm, inviting color, texture, aroma and, most certainly, its taste are part of chocolate’s allure — as if any one of those qualities wouldn’t be more than enough to satisfy the desire for rich sweetness, but chocolate gives us a chance to elevate our mood.

Containing phenylethylamine, a mood-regulator chemical that is found in the brain, chocolate may spark the brain’s production of serotonin, which is the body’s own antidepressant. By eating chocolate, we trigger our own internal sense of well-being and serenity. Chocolate’s ability to reduce anxiety and increase a happier mood may be the very reasons that we have the sometimes ravenous chocolate cravings that we do since our body’s chemistry is telling us what will indeed make it happy. Our body is telling us to stoke its fire with serotonin, endorphins and phenylethylamine.

In addition to the presence of phenylethylamine, chocolate also contains caffeine, a stimulant, which works as a stimulant. Our body craves that extra bit of get up and go that caffeine offers, helping spur on the mood lifting benefits of chocolate.

Focusing on macronutrients that our body needs helps us to understand another reason that chocolate works as a mood elevator. Sugar, which is a carbohydrate, acts as a catalyst to release the serotonin into our body, and the fat in chocolate helps to bolster the carbohydrates and gives us a sense of satiety.

Other contributing factors for chocolate’s mood enhancing properties are the presence of vitamins and minerals, including iron, calcium and magnesium.

The only time chocolate doesn’t serve to increase the quality of our moods is when we indulge in too much of it, so finding moderation will give the most benefits.