{"id":751,"date":"2016-10-06T18:57:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-06T18:57:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2018-05-22T03:26:12","modified_gmt":"2018-05-22T03:26:12","slug":"mindfully-eating-chocolate-increases-positive-mood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pastrysampler.com\/blog\/2016\/10\/mindfully-eating-chocolate-increases-positive-mood.html","title":{"rendered":"“Mindfully” Eating Chocolate Increases Positive Mood"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A great study out of Gettysburg College’s Psychology department. Each participant was randomly asked to eat either a cracker or piece of chocolate either mindfully or non-mindfully. Researchers found that eating chocolate mindfully (focusing on the ingredient production) rather than simply eating without thinking produces an actual increase in a positive mood over other participants.<\/p>\n

A fun study on the effect of chocolate and what it does to the people who eat it, but it also shows that mindfully eating a comfort food can better increase a positive mood over mindlessly snacking.<\/p>\n

Abstract from The Sweet Life: The Effect of Minful Chocolate Consumption on Mood<\/i> published via Appetite<\/i>, Volume 108:<\/p>\n

Chocolate consumption is anecdotally associated with an increase in happiness, but little experimental work has examined this effect. We combined a food type manipulation (chocolate vs. crackers) with a mindfulness manipulation (mindful consumption vs. non-mindful consumption) and examined the impact on positive mood. Participants (N = 258) were randomly assigned to eat a small portion (75 calories) of chocolate or a control food (crackers) in a mindful or non-mindful way. Participants who were instructed to mindfully eat chocolate had a greater increase in positive mood compared to participants who were instructed to eat chocolate non-mindfully or crackers either mindfully or non-mindfully. Additional analyses revealed that self-reported liking of the food partially mediated this effect. Chocolate appears to increase positive mood, but particularly when it is eaten mindfully.<\/i> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Confectionery News<\/i> called it ‘candy karma,’ and reported on how the participants were asked to eat mindfully – by holding the chocolate or cracker and thinking about the people who actually made the ingredients that were needed for production.<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/p>\n

Meier, Brian P. “The Sweet Life: The Effect of Mindful Chocolate Consumption on Mood.” Science Direct<\/i>. Appetite, 15 Sept. 2016. Web. 06 Oct. 2016.  <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
NIEBURG, Oliver. “Candy Karma: Eating Chocolate ‘mindfully’ Boosts Mood, Says NCA-backed Study.” ConfectioneryNews.com<\/i>. N.p., 05 Oct. 2016. Web. 06 Oct. 2016.  <\/span><\/div>\n
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+Renee Shelton<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/i>
Twitter: @121degreesC<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/i>
PastrySampler.com<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A great study out of Gettysburg College’s Psychology department. Each participant was randomly asked to eat either a cracker or piece of chocolate either mindfully or non-mindfully. Researchers found that eating chocolate mindfully (focusing on the ingredient production) rather than simply eating without thinking produces …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[271],"tags":[13,27,282],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pastrysampler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/chocolates.jpg?fit=600%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p86M9B-c7","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pastrysampler.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pastrysampler.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pastrysampler.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pastrysampler.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pastrysampler.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pastrysampler.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1304,"href":"https:\/\/www.pastrysampler.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions\/1304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pastrysampler.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pastrysampler.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pastrysampler.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pastrysampler.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}