Sandra Boynton, report to UC San Diego.
There’s a new study out by, hmmm, let’s say OBVIOUS MAN, that says people who eat a lot of chocolate are more likely to be depressed than people who eat less chocolate. These UC San Diego researchers found that people diagnosed as “possibly depressed” by psychiatrists ate 8.4 servings of chocolate per month, and that people who were not depressed ate three fewer servings per month.
If you, like me, are fully capable of eating 8.4 servings of chocolate in one sitting, these people would likely judge me suicidal.
I do turn to chocolate when I’m down. Which is why today there are two new boxes of 100-calorie snacks downstairs, one containing six packs of chocolate-covered pretzels, the other some chocolate-mint cookie packs.
And in the freezer, two packages of Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches – one mint, one cookies and cream. At 140 calories and 1.5 grams of fat each, they’re a great way to take the edge off. Otherwise, I’d be halfway through a bag of Reese’s miniatures by now.
Yes, I’m very down. There are some personal things going on that I’ve been forced to finally confront, and it’s eating me up inside – which makes me want to eat things up outside. Especially chocolate.
I almost didn’t keep my appointment with Tanza this a.m. because I knew I’d tell her the latest, and that she’d hold my feet to the fire on the issue of valuing myself. Trust me when I tell you, this is exceedingly difficult for me to work through because I can’t quite get my arms around the concept that I deserve more/better than what I currently allow.
I may reveal more about this truly wretched phase as I continue to strengthen in spirit and determination, but when I read about the chocolate study – right after returning from the grocery store, which is where I went after my psych appointment – I had to laugh out loud. I hadn’t bought a pack of Skinny Cows in over a year.
As for the aforementioned reference to illustrator, author (and personal hero) Sandra Boynton, if you bought any greeting cards from the late-1970s through the 1980s, chances are you bought one of hers. I was a major fan, buying dozens of cards, t-shirts, pins, mugs and posters during my Ohio State years. An all-time fave features a solitary hippo on the front with the statement, “Things are getting worse.” On the inside: “Please send chocolate.”
But she’s not the one being published in the Archives of Internal Medicine this week, is she?
Get this: The chocolate researchers concluded that it wasn’t clear whether people ate more chocolate because they are depressed or if the candy causes depression.
Idiots.
Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. ~ Sandra Boynton
Leslie J. Ansley is an award-winning journalist and entrepreneur who blogs daily for TheRoot. She lives in Raleigh, NC.