Science reveals secrets of food craving

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Well, maybe just one little piece. Or two. Or three.

Chemists have discovered a fudge factor that causes us to crave chocolate, or perhaps have a chocolate emergency right there at the Godiva counter.

The chemists prefer to call it our chemical signature, and it can be measured in a lab.

"For the first time, scientists have linked the all-too-human preference for a food — chocolate — to a specific, chemical signature that may be programmed into the metabolic system and is detectable by laboratory tests," said a study released Friday by the American Chemical Society.

"The signature reads 'chocolate lover' in some people and indifference to the popular sweet in others," the study said.

Granted, the study was small. Over a five-day period, a team of Swiss and British researchers tracked the chocolate-eating habits of 11 chocolate lovers and 11 persons who were ambivalent, noting changes in their system through blood and urine tests.

"The 'chocolate lovers' had a hallmark metabolic profile that involved low levels of LDL-cholesterol (so-called 'bad' cholesterol) and marginally elevated levels of albumin, a beneficial protein," the study said.

"The chocolate lovers expressed this profile even when they ate no chocolate. The activity of the gut microbes in the chocolate lovers was also distinctively different from the other subjects," the researchers found.

The discovery was a eureka-style moment, with heavy implications for those interested in losing weight.

"Our study shows that food preferences, including chocolate, might be programmed or imprinted into our metabolic system in such a way that the body becomes attuned to a particular diet," said biochemist Sunil Kochhar, who is based in Lausanne, Switzerland.

"We know that some people can eat a diet that is high in steak and carbs and generally remain healthy, while the same food in others is unhealthy," he said. "Knowing one's metabolic profile could open the door to dietary or nutritional interventions that are customized to your type so that your metabolism can be nudged to a healthier status."

The study will be published in the Nov. 2 issue of the Journal of Proteome Research.

It's been a good year for chocolate research.

Germany's University Hospital of Cologne revealed in July that dark chocolate can lower blood pressure, while the University of California at Davis in March found that chocolate improved blood vessel function. In February, the University of Nottingham in Britain discovered that chocolate improved cognitive skills by increasing blood flow to certain areas of the brain.

It also can make us kinder, some say. In a study released Thursday, University of Chicago researchers found that students primed with a chunk of chocolate had better things to say when evaluating their professors than those who had none.

"This could be bigger than just chocolate," said psychologist Robert Youmans, who directed the research.

"People pride themselves in being fair and objective when they are asked to give an assessment of someone else's performance, such as evaluating a professor. But what if they really aren't being objective? What if something else could influence their judgments?" he said.