Consumo de chocolate e sua relação com os níveis de estresse: caso de estudo com teste em domicílio no período de pandemia COVID-19

Abstract

The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus that was detected for the first time in December 2019 in China. On January 30th, 2020, the World Health Organization announced it as a public health emergency and they asked worldwide collaboration in order to suppress the quick dissemination of the virus and thus began the social isolation. During a pandemic it is expected of people to witness heightened levels of angst and anxiety, especially as a result of social isolation. Depression and anxiety are capable of influencing eating habits and the acceptance of food. The desire to consume chocolate is very much associated with the excessive consumption that happens especially when the consumer is under emotional stress, thus suggesting a correlation between humor and the desire to consume chocolate. In this context the goal was to analyze the relation between the consumption of chocolate with different amounts of cocoa with the shifting of anxiety levels during the pandemic (COVID-19) through the use of an Analogical Visual Scale of Humor together with sensory appeal in order to evaluate the acceptance of chocolate with milk and dark chocolate. For that an inquiry was applied so there could be data on the consumers, together with the Analogical Visual Scale of Humor (AVSH) in three stances, the first being called phase 0, the moment before the ingestion of the sample, phase 1 being the moment 30 minutes after the ingestion of chocolate and phase 2 being 60 minutes after the sensory analysis. After the filling of the AVSH scale the CATA emotional and acceptance test was applied. The analysis were made by 123 volunteers and all of those that took the chocolate with milk and the 70% dark chocolate in alternate days. The results obtained were: the most homogenous profile among the volunteers was made by women, that were worried during most of the time about the effects of the pandemic during the pandemic. It was possible to verify a great reduction in the anxiety levels compared to the moment before the consumption of chocolate and 60 minutes after the consumption of the sample, notwithstanding the amount of cocoa in the chocolate. It was also stated that positive emotions such as active, satisfied and enthusiastic were used to describe the consumption of dark chocolate and that descriptions such as good-humored, happy and affectionate were used to describe emotions after consuming chocolate with milk, at the same time that negative attributes were given to comment the same sample. Looking at the results the consumption of chocolate with milk and 70% cocoa is effective to diminish anxiety levels for a short period of time and that positive emotions and negative ones were felt during the consumption of both chocolates, with milk and dark chocolate, although milk chocolate presented a greater acceptance rate among tasters.