Chocolate is better than kissing?

April 16, 2007 by dave

When I saw this story about a study which found that "chocolate provides a buzz lasting up to four times as long as embracing the special person in our lives."

The volunteers, all in their 20s, took part in the experiment in an area designed to look like a place of work to create the impression of an office romance.

Each had electrodes attached to their scalps and wore heart monitors as they popped a piece of dark chocolate on their tongue and, without chewing, indicated when it started to melt.

The young lovers then had to kiss each other in the same way they would normally - while researchers in white coats and carrying clipboards "studied their monitors".

As part of the controlled experiment, measurements of heart and brain activity were also taken when there was no external stimulation of the senses.

The study revealed that, at the point chocolate melts in the mouth, all regions of the brain receive a boost far more intense and longer lasting than the excitement produced by kissing.

The chunks of chocolate also made the heart beat faster.

For some of the 12 volunteers, the number of beats per minute more than doubled from a resting rate of 60 to as much as 140.

Kissing also set hearts racing but the effect was shorter-lasting.

I'm not sure about the accuracy of the study. As far as I'm concerned, if they thought that chocolate was better than kissing, they obviously weren't doing it right. I've never seen a chocolate that can beat a kiss from my wife!

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