Feeling guilty about eating too much chocolate? – Part 1

Have you been called a chocolate addict, because you just can’t stop indulging in the sweet sensation? You’re not alone, and chances are that you feel guilty about it to some degree at least some of the time. People who eat excessive amounts of a not-so-healthy food often feel guilty about various things such as neglecting their health, not being able to control the urge, setting their children a bad example, and sometimes also about putting additional strain on the budget. I used to be one of those people, and my own need to reduce excessive chocolate consumption prompted me to research the topic. In the process I found that there are many possible reasons for the behaviour, none of which we should have to feel guilty about.

First of all, the abundance of food in the developed world has led to the neglect of natural cues for when, what and how much we eat, and therefore, food intake has lost its original purpose of simply maintaining the body’s homeostasis (Le Magnen, 1985). This means, we eat for pleasure rather than for need. However, some natural preferences (salt, sugar, fat) seem to be firmly anchored in the genetic makeup of most mammals (and humans are mammals), as they represents an essential energy source (Logue, 1991). This innate hunger for sweetness, combined with the psycho-pharmacologically active ingredients of cocoa (caffeine and theobromine) which positively affect mood and performance, strongly predisposes chocolate to be addictive, or at least extremely desirable (Smit and Blackburn, 2004).

Apart from these factors, sensory pleasure, a person’s family and cultural background, as well as previous experience with a food are all involved in our food choices, suggesting that a large part of it is learned or conditioned (Beck, 2000).

The conditioning of human eating behaviour starts early in life. For example, studies have shown that the mother’s diet during pregnancy influences her offspring’s food preferences (Beck, 2000). In addition, when a neutral stimulus is paired with an already liked (or disliked) affective stimulus, evaluative conditioning occurs (De Houwer et al., 2001). Therefore, children learn to love chocolate and other sweet foods through association with happy events such as Easter, birthdays and Christmas, usually during their very first year. According to research, once a liking for a certain food has been conditioned in this way, it usually remains for life.

Instrumental conditioning, which is the learning of positive or negative consequences of specific behaviours, also takes place from an early age. For example, a toddler is offered chocolate as a reward for good behaviour, or the treat is withheld as punishment for bad behaviour (Martin & Pear, 1999).

In many cases, excessive chocolate eating is compensating behaviour for people who had to give up something else (e.g. alcohol, smoking), or people who feel emotionally neglected (e.g. after a relationship breakdown). The excessive behaviour is slowly conditioned by association with an increasing number of everyday events such as coming home from work, finishing a meal, watching TV, and eventually even with opening the fridge. According to Burnham and Phelan (2000), there exists a “do-it-again center” in the hypothalamus of the brain, which makes rats (and humans) want to repeat behaviours with pleasurable consequences over and over again. For those who are interested how this could offer a possible explanation for more serious addiction, please read about Opponent Process Theory (e.g. Solomon & Corbit, 1973).

The negative impact of excessive chocolate consumption on a person’s life is usually small and outweighed by the reward of intense pleasure. However, if the habit causes negative feelings and starts affecting everyday life, it can potentially lead to depression or eating disorders. As Beck (2000) points out, eating disorders such as obesity, anorexia nervosa, and bulimia are extremely difficult to treat once they have fully developed. Therefore, in order to avoid such serious consequences later on, it is vital to recognize the early signs while there is still a good chance to reverse the effects with relatively little effort.

There are several methods for behaviour change. Currently, one of the most successful of these is Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), which is used by many psychotherapists (there is lots of information about CBT available on the internet). I am happy to say that I have successfully reduced the amount of chocolate that I eat to a level that allows me to fully enjoy the pleasure of it, but without the guilt. If you want to know how I did it, leave a comment and I’ll tell you in the next post.

References

Beck, R.C. (2000). Motivation (4^th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.

De Houwer, J., Thomas, S., & Baeyens, F. (2001). Associative learning of likes and dislikes: A review of 25 years of research on human evaluative conditioning. Psychological Bulletin 2001, 127/6, 853-869.

Le Magnen, J. (1985). Hunger. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Logue, A.W. (1991). The psychology of eating and drinking: An introduction (2^nd ed.). New York: W.H. Freeman and Company.

Martin, G., & Pear, J. (1999). Behaviour modification: What is it and how to do it (6^th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.

Smit, H.J. & Blackburn, R.J. (2005). Reinforcing effects of caffeine and theobromine as found in chocolate. Psychopharmacology, 181, 101-106.

Solomon, R.L. & Corbit J.D. (1973). An opponent-process theory of motivation: II. Cigarette addiction. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 81/2, 158-172.