I am just pointing out the obvious here, but doesn't the recent study that showed people who regularly each chocolate have lower BMIs run counter to the food reward theory? If there was ever a food high in food reward, I think chocolate would be it. It is both high-fat/high-sugar, and is used in cakes, cookies, candy, etc.
I noticed at the grocery store the other day that one-half of an entire aisle was devoted to chocolate products. That is a ton of shelf-space, and therefore that means there is high demand for the product.
My take on this would be that chocolate itself is not the problem, it's the bingeing/overeating of chocolate that is the issue. If chocolate can be eaten when hungry and consumed to satiety, then it may not be a promoter of weight gain. In this study, perhaps the people who consumed chocolate frequently learned to regulate their consumption. Others who like chocolate but occassionally binge on chocolate products may instead gain weight.
Good chocolate has an underlying complexity that for me at least, is a signal to moderate my consumption. I can (and did when I was fat) eat a whole bag of reeses cups, but ever since I switched to dark expensive chocolate, I’ve been very moderate. I use the same principle with alcohol- I mainly order beverages that are very sour or very bitter.
Chocolate needs to be defined here. Are we talking about candy bars/confectionary with less than 30% cocoa and choc-a-block (pun intended) of HFCS, fillers and heaven knows what else or are we talking about 70%, 85% or even 99% cocoa chocolate? Two quite different foods within the same food name.
Ever binged on 90% dark chocolate? Its hard and I love the stuff — calorically dense and delicious. But I can’t eat more than about a half a bar without feeling pretty sasatiated.
The food reward theory is seriously flawed in hat it can’t account for this. It can’t account for pounding a pound of delicious steak either.but the food reward theorists dismiss this problem out of hand.
You’d think the stimulant/drug aspect would make it even more rewarding (btw)