Addicted to Chocolate? How to Stop Eating Chocolate

By Kelly Aziz 

Do you feel like you are addicted to chocolate? Some people have strong cravings for chocolate and feel the need to eat it daily and frequently. You can stop eating chocolate without issue but first you must understand that chocolate is addictive. Chocolate is addictive in two ways. It is physically addictive and emotionally addictive.

Physical Addiction

Chocolate Targets The Same Spot In Your Brain As Heroin

Chocolate is an addictive substance - many of us know this but we still feel weak and guilty because we can't give it up. Hopefully the information below will allow you to see that it isn't as simple as it first appears.

Chocolate targets the same spot on your brain as heroin and morphine. Although chocolate doesn't affect you as strongly as heroin, it still affects your brain and you can still become addictive as you may well know.

On top of having opiate properties, chocolate also contains caffeine, theobromine (a strong stimulant similar to caffeine that affects the nervous system, particularly the heart), phenylethylaminphy (an amphetamine-like substance) and also traces of compounds similar to THC (the active ingredient in Marijuana).

So as you can see chocolate is full of addictive properties. But chocolate also contains sugar, milk and dairy products which also have highly addictive properties.

The best way to overcome these issues is to quit cold turkey but also to make it easy to quit cold turkey, you need to nourish your body properly. When you eat healthily and the right food you will not have intense cravings.

Chocolate can also, of course, be emotionally addictive. Like many other foods, chocolate is frequently used to comfort us.

Emotional Addiction

Emotional addiction to chocolate involves using chocolate in times of stress, boredom, depression and to cope with life.

To determine whether you are an emotional eater do you do any of the following 5 things:

1. Crave specific foods - usually junk foods.

2. Have hunger that coincides with an upsetting emotion/event.

3. Have hunger that comes on suddenly and you feel a need to address it ASAP.
True hunger can wait until you are able to get food. It is patient. Emotional eating involves an intense desire to fulfil the hunger right then and there even if it means going out of your way to get something and that something is usually specific.

4. Have eating that is very automatic and you don't realize you are doing it.

5. You keep eating even when you are full. 
You can satisfy your true hunger without overfilling. Emotional hunger however never really feels satisfied so you end up eating after you are full and ready to pop.

If you still are unsure, take a few days to observe yourself and write down what triggers your cravings for chocolate. If they are related to stress or emotion, then you know you have some emotional eating tendencies at the very least!

The best way to deal with emotional eating is:

1. Become aware - by doing the observation task above you will know what your craving triggers are.

2. Learn to do something else to unwind instead of eating - To help you do this you can spend time writing a list. Sometimes having time alone to simply feel the emotions is all you need, other times you may feel a walk is more helpful to you. If you find that you are bored in the evenings and this is a time you will eat the most, then being creative or being active will better suit you. Write a list of things you have always wanted to do or activities that will satisfy your creativity. Make your lists specific to the emotions that trigger you chocolate cravings.

3. Get support - sometimes its simply not enough to work on it yourself and you may need someone to talk through your feelings to stop you reaching for food. Try to find someone supportive. Alternatively a great website for emotional eating which also has a forum is ShrinkYourself.com. ShrinkYourself.com also has lots of useful articles on emotional eating and offers a great 12 week intensive emotional eating program if you find you can't cope alone.

For more information about this program Emotional Eating Program.

Kelly Aziz is an expert in the field of nutrition and addiction psychology. She is the author of the acclaimed "Free to Eat" Combat Your Cravings Ebook that helps you eat well and combat cravings for good. For more information please visit: Addicted to Chocolate [http://www.combatyourcravings.com]

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