A Craving for Comfort - Chocolate

Posted on | October 8, 2008 |

By Robert Passikoff - President, Brand Keys

A fusion of falling temperatures and falling stocks has more consumers craving comfort foods these days. And as economic uncertainty and belt- tightening increases, calorie counting has decreased and consumers have been turning to that most comforting of foods - chocolate.

Yes, chocolate is high in fat and sugar, but consumers see it as a pleasurable, affordable indulgence. Some studies have shown that eating chocolate every day is connected to better moods, reduced stress, and depressed depression. There’s even the newest added-benefit that chocolates also contain antioxidants - so it’s healthy too.

Everybody has their favorites, but a recent Brand Keys’ survey among businessmen - facing falling temperatures and financials - ranked these chocolate bars tops:

1. Snickers
2. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
3. Kit Kat Bars
4. Milky Way
5. Butterfinger
6. Baby Ruth
7. Three Musketeers
8. Mars
9. Oh Henry!
10. Hershey

Dr. Adrian Owen, a Cambridge University neuroscientist said that recent brain imaging studies explained why chocolate has a positive impact on consumers’ moods. While it’s often assumed that chocolate contains psychoactive substances that affect brain chemistry, it’s more likely that a unique combination of taste, texture and aroma in a bar of chocolate stimulates the pleasure center of the brain more than any other of the traditional comfort foods.

Anyway, in these stressful days, you may find some comfort in heeding the advice of writer Charles Dickens, “In trying times there is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.”