The sweetness of relieving stress

My younger daughter, Laurie, and I are like peas in a pod when it comes to veggies: we love almost all of them. Even as children we both cleaned our plates of the peas, the green beans, even the lima beans. We go crazy over lima beans. And, in general, we both like all kinds of foods from pad Thai to chicken picatta. But there is one very crucial culinary area where we part ways, and I don't mind saying that I must blame myself for some flaw in her upbringing.

I love chocolate; Laurie can live without it. Live without chocolate? I don't think so. Whether dark or milk (to me, white isn't really chocolate), whether melted, solid or liquid, you've got to love the sweet, full-bodied taste of this greatest of all sweet treats. Oh, I know there are people out there who don't share my view on this, but my own daughter? Tell me this isn't so! My older daughter, Tracy, shares my love for chocolate, but my stepson, Matt, does not. So when we have family dinners, we usually have two desserts: one chocolate, one not.

All of which brings me to a new study we recently featured in our ACS News Service Weekly PressPac that arms me with some good evidence I can use to try to bring Laurie over to the dark (chocolate) side. She is a public defender and the study is about fighting stress, so I think I have a chance...

A "chocolate cure" for emotional stress is getting new support from a clinical trial published in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research. The researchers found that eating about an ounce and a half of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduced levels of stress hormones in the bodies of people feeling highly stressed. Everyone's favorite treat also partially corrected other stress-related biochemical imbalances.

Sunil Kochhar and colleagues note growing scientific evidence that antioxidants and other beneficial substances in dark chocolate may reduce risk factors for heart disease and other physical conditions. Studies also suggest that chocolate may ease emotional stress. Until now, however, there was little evidence from research in humans on exactly how chocolate might have those stress-busting effects.

In the study, scientists identified reductions in stress hormones and other stress-related biochemical changes in volunteers who rated themselves as highly stressed and ate dark chocolate for two weeks. "The study provides strong evidence that a daily consumption of 40 grams [1.4 ounces] during a period of 2 weeks is sufficient to modify the metabolism of healthy human volunteers," the scientists say.

So whether you are a chocoholic or prefer something like cherry pie for dessert, take a closer look at this study at dark chocolate. 

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons