Question

Eating chocolate relieves stress

Comments

I think that moderate consumption of dark chocolate can indeed help relieve stress by boosting mood, lowering cortisol levels, and offering a comforting treat. However, it should be part of an overall healthy lifestyle, as overconsumption or reliance on chocolate for stress management can have the opposite effect.

Answer 1

I believe that the information that was provided is factual and offers a valuable insight into the ways in which dark chocolate can alleviate stress. It does a fantastic job of outlining the studies that were used to get the information and providing details on how the information was retrieved. In addition, I believe that the fact that the article was authored by a physician who specializes in the management of stress lends the article a greater degree of legitimacy. 

My research has led me to discover additional sources that back up the assertion that dark chocolate might help relieve stress. In both of the studies that I discovered, it was demonstrated that the participants were administered doses at specific intervals of time, and that the higher the proportion of cocoa involved, the more beneficial it is to the participants' health.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4350893/

https://news.llu.edu/for-journalists/press-releases/new-studies-show-dark-chocolate-consumption-reduces-stress-and-inflammation-while-improving-memory-immunity-and-mood

Comments

This is a great fact-check! It does a thorough job of explaining why the information provided in the original claim is supported by the linked article, along with further proving the claim correct by including additional research. Nicely done.

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This Is a really good fact check. You did an amazing job of going into depth about the information in the claim. On top of that, you also proved the claim to be true by providing more research and more articles. Really good fact check.

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You did such a wonderful job of further explaining why the claim is factual and providing additional sources. Great work!

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This is a pretty good fact check. It was good how you brought up that the person speaking on this topic was a professional in the field. The addition of more research was also very smart and helped convince me more of the truth behind this claim.

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You did a great job showing how credible sources back up the benefits of dark chocolate for stress relief. Highlighting that the article was written by a stress management physician adds legitimacy, and your additional studies on cocoa percentage and dosage strengthen the argument.

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You did a really good job of thoroughly exploring the details of the claim. Not only did you dive deep into the information, but you also supported your findings with additional research and articles, which helped confirm the claim's accuracy.

Answer 2

This is true. Chocolate does reduce stress. A study published by the National Library of Medicine concluded that milk and dark chocolates are effective ways of reducing stress in females. The study specifies that dark chocolate is the most effective, which your source also claims.

Comments

This is a good fact check except for one part. In the future it would be good to include a link to the source you used to create your fact check. You bring up the study which seems reliable but it makes the fact check stronger with the link included. Other then that great fact check.

Answer 3

To answer this fact-check claim, I find this to be true that eating chocolate can relieve stress, but only minimally. Specifically eating dark chocolate can reduce levels of stress and cortisol levels. Also, eating milk chocolate contains tryptophan which is a happy hormone that decreases stress levels and eliminates the thought of stressful events in one's life. Also eating chocolate can increase brain waves which is associated with memory, stress levels, and recall.

I got all my information to fact-check from this link below.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4350893/

Answer 4

Reading this claim I had an idea that this could be valid because chocolate is known to have many health benefits, like that it contains flavanoids that help women with menstrual cramping. After looking at this site and seeing that the author has a Phd in psychology, I thought it was a trustworthy source. The author backed up her claims with well sought-out information that stated concrete facts rather than what if/ possibly type sentences. The author looked into a study that showed men who ate chocolate before doing stress-intended activities showed less adrenaline and the hormones that are produced from stress. While this proved that chocolate does have stress reducing benefits, I looked at another site because it focused on women as well as men. 

These results from the National Institutes of Health proved that, "a daily consumption of 40 grams of dark chocolate for two weeks reduced levels of stress hormones in highly stressed people." However, there was a greater decrease of stress in females, so this tactic is more productive for females than men!

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4350893/

Answer 5

The article claims that dark chocolate can actually lower stress levels. to figure out if this was true, i found source with the same claim, https://thesagenews.com/17936/opinion-editorial/dark-chocolate-could-save-your-life/ which uses the same

study as the original article, stating that they took 65 healthy men, 31 of which consumed 50 grams of dark chocolate, and the other 34 consuming the same amount of white chocolate that was made to look like dark chocolate, and the ones who consumed the real dark chocolate had lower stress levels. I couldn't find the exact study that these articles used, but i found a similar one by https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4350893/. in this study, they used 60 students and measured their stress levels depending on what type of chocolate they were consuming. The stress levels of the students who ate the dark chocolate had decreased. Because this is a government trusted website, and there have been multiple studies proving that stress can be decreased by dark chocolate intake, the claim is true.  

Comments

I appreciate how you included a study done on the matter and a separate article that supports the main claim. Great job explaining why the sources you found relate and align with the original claim!

Answer 6

This claim that eating chocolate relieves stress is true. In a study of 60 medical students, those who at 40 g/day of chocolate for 2 weeks saw a small, but significant drop in their stress scores, and it was stronger in females (PMC). 

Dark chocolate increased brain "gamma" activity within 30 minutes, which is linked with better memory and lower stress (Healthline). But, not all chocolate is equal and dark chocolate has a higher cocoa content and less sugar, so it has more beneficial compound in it than regular milk chocolate (Healthline). Overall, chocolate can help with stress, but it won't do everything. 

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4350893/

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/dark-chocolate-improves-memory-reduces-stress#1

Answer 7

The claim that eating chocolate relieves stress is partly true, but the effect is small and depends on the type and amount of chocolate you eat. According to a study from the National Institute of Health people who ate 40 grams of dark or milk chocolate every day for two weeks showed lower stress levels, especially among women. It also showed in this study that the higher levels of cacao that were present in the chocolate, the lower stress levels people were experiencing. So that means eating white chocolate is going to have a lower effect on your stress compared to eating heavily concentrated cacao chocolate. 

Another NIH supported study found that eating dark chocolate for four weeks reduced the body’s main stress hormone, cortisol, even though people’s moods didn’t change much. This study also found that in other studies, that results weren't super consistent with the lower cortisol levels that they found. Even thought cortisol levels were lower on this study, it couldn't be that consistent over many studies

Finally, I investigated a Johns Hopkins study that explored people's individual relationships with chocolate. With their findings, they stated that people who ate dark chocolate felt physically less stressed, and researchers even confirmed it by confirming that their cortisol levels were lower as well. The article also stated that chocolates with above a 70% cacao level showed to have more health benefits compared to chocolate lower than that level. 

Overall, eating dark chocolate in specific can help you relax for a little while, but science shows it’s not a reliable or lasting solution for managing stress.

Answer 8

1. It is true that eating chocolate can relieve stress. However it is found to be more effiencent in women.  I fact checked this by finding an article posted by the National Library of Medicine, they stated that the " Consumption of 40 g of Dark and Milk chocolate daily during a period of 2 weeks appear to be an effective way to reduce perceived stress in females". This is also backed up by an article found on Johns Hopkins Hospitals website stating that the consumption of dark chocolate has many other benefits including improving heart health, balancing your immune system, and improve overall brain function. 

Sources:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4350893/

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/the-benefits-of-having-a-healthy-relationship-with-chocolate

Answer 9

There are multiple studies that have proven this effect. Just to name a few,

1. Study by Sunni and Latif: 40g of dark or milk chocolate daily during a 2-week period decreases stress, particularly for females.

2. Paper by Shin et al. : Daily consumption of dark chocolate improves negative emotional states.

3. Article by Mythri G. and Chethan H. A. : Dark chocolate consumption may help modulate/buffer stress levels.

So, yes. Eating chocolate does seem to relieve stress.

Answer 10

This article does a good job providing evidence that chocolate can be stress relieving. They reference a study that found that “our findings indicate that acute flavonoid-rich dark chocolate intake buffers endocrine stress reactivity at the level of the adrenal gland, suggesting a peripheral stress-protective effect of dark chocolate consumption” (JACC). This directly proves their claim that chocolate can relieve stress. One of their other sources, however, is a study that found the effects of dark and milk chocolate eaten daily over the course of two weeks are seemingly stress relieving in females, but it did not prove to be as effective in males. The article mentioned this source and said, “can [chocolate] help the body better respond to stress? According to one study, the answer may be yes.” While this isn’t entirely misleading, the study only really proved this point for females, and not for males, so they didn’t really provide good evidence for this point.

Overall, after reviewing this article and the sources that they cite, I do think that the claim is true, I just think that they could have done a better job connecting their evidence to their points,