What Is It About Chocolate That Makes It So Desirable?

Many foods are craved by many people. Some people will crave a bag of chips while somebody else may have a craving for a BBQ sandwich.

The most popular food item craved though is from the coco bean... Chocolate.

How often have you found yourself at 3pm getting the munchies?

It's about 3 hours after lunch and 3 hours till dinner and it strikes you maybe out of the blue or has been building up, you want some chocolate. Off to the vending machine you go, or perhaps you have some in your desk.

It is in between meals, so maybe you're just a little hungry, but then why is it that the chocolate bar sounds more satisfying than the package of cheese crackers or an apple?

While there isn't a simple way to answer this question, there are low levels of dopamine and serotonin in chocolate. Our moods can be affected by these two chemicals, therefore, when we are moody, we find comfort in chocolate. We may experience an uncontrollable and unexplainable "need" for chocolate.

The first time you took a bite of chocolate, your brain realized the effects that it got from the taste and remembered it.

This is true with all foods though, and while some people find comfort in other foods, chocolate is the most common and popular comfort food for the majority of us. If your Mum made you potato soup when you were sick as a child, chances are potato soup will be your comfort food as an adult.

However, chocolate has its own distinct taste and distinct results.

First of all it is usually combined with some sort of sweetness and sugar is a strong sensation on our tongues.

Sweetness touches our taste buds strongly just as salt and bitter tastes do, but the sweet sensation mixed with the chocolate flavors will overpower anything else for most people.

Especially women.

We've all heard a woman say "I need chocolate!" and it is usually pretty much immediate - it is now she needs that chocolate fix - not in five seconds!

Why do women have this need for chocolate that men don't though?

Experts have determined that women are predisposed to crave sweets, it's genetics.

Chocolate is a sweet taste that surprises the taste buds where bitter tastes don't.

Sweet tastes are pleasant and as such, can become addictive.

We all prefer something pleasant over something unpleasant and this certainly relates to foods and tastes especially.

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