Many people find they can’t stop eating chocolate and so conclude they are addicted.  But is there any truth in chocolate being addictive or are we just too weak to resist it?  Well, the truth is, chocolate is addictive in 2 ways.  Chocolate can be physically and emotionally addictive.

Physical Addiction

Chocolate Targets The Same Spot In Your Brain As Heroin

Although chocolate doesn’t affect you as strongly as heroin, it still affects your brain and you can still become addictive as you may well know.

On top of having opiate properties, chocolate also contains caffeine, theobromine (a strong stimulant similar to caffeine that affects the nervous system, particularly the heart), phenylethylaminphy (an amphetamine-like substance) and also traces of compounds similar to THC (the active ingredient in Marijuana).

So as you can see chocolate is full of addictive properties. But chocolate also contains sugar, milk and dairy products which also have highly addictive properties.

The best way to overcome these issues is to quit cold turkey but also to make it easy to quit cold turkey, you need to nourish your body properly. When you eat healthily and the right food you will not have intense cravings.

Chocolate can also, of course, be emotionally addictive. Like many other foods, chocolate is frequently used to comfort us.

Emotional Addiction

Emotional addiction to chocolate involves using chocolate in times of stress, boredom, depression and to cope with life.

To determine whether you are an emotional eater read this article: Are You An Emotional Eater? 6 Signs of Emotional Eating

If you still are unsure, take a few days to observe yourself and write down what triggers your cravings for chocolate. If they are related to stress or emotion, then you know you have some emotional eating tendencies at the very least!

The best way to deal with emotional eating is:

1. Become aware – by doing the observation task above you will know what your craving triggers are.

2. Learn to do something else to unwind instead of eating – To help you do this you can spend time writing a list. Sometimes having time alone to simply feel the emotions is all you need, other times you may feel a walk is more helpful to you. If you find that you are bored in the evenings and this is a time you will eat the most, then being creative or being active will better suit you. Write a list of things you have always wanted to do or activities that will satisfy your creativity. Make your lists specific to the emotions that trigger you chocolate cravings.

3. Get support – sometimes its simply not enough to work on it yourself and you may need someone to talk through your feelings to stop you reaching for food. Try to find someone supportive. Alternatively a great website for emotional eating which also has a forum is ShrinkYourself.com. ShrinkYourself.com also has lots of useful articles on emotional eating and offers a great 12 week intensive emotional eating program if you find you can’t cope alone. For more information about this program Emotional Eating Program.

Hopefully this should be enough information to get you started on your road to overcoming chocolate addiction.