ORIGINAL INVESTIGATION Mood Food Chocolate and Depressive Symptoms in a Cross-sectional Analysis

Background: Much lore but few studies describe a re-lation of chocolate to mood. We examined the cross-sectional relationship of chocolate consumption with de-pressed mood in adult men and women. Methods: A sample of 1018 adults (694 men and 324 women) from San Diego, California, without diabetes or known coronary artery disease was studied in a cross-sectional analysis. The 931 subjects who were not using antidepressant medications and provided chocolate con-sumption information were the focus of the analysis. Mood was assessed using the Center for Epidemiologic Stud-ies Depression Scale (CES-D). Cut points signaling a posi-tive depression screen result (CES-D score, 16) and probable major depression (CES-D score,22) were used. Chocolate servings per week were provided by 1009 sub