Ever hear of a love for chocolate turning into a repulsion by it?

My dad told me that he used to work at a chocolate company. They have a weird policy on theft from the assembly line: take as much as you want!

Everyone, of course, does. it’s free chocolate, c’mon! After about a week, he says, nobody takes any – they are all sick of the stuff, and never want to see/smell/taste/touch chocolate again.

I don’t like chocolate much. I’ve just never understood. It just doesn’t taste that good.

I once had a job in a large Parisian pastry kitchen where, over the holidays, we made enormous quantities of Buches de Noel, cakes shaped like Yule logs. Through the month of December, we probably made upwards of 3000 of these.

The most popular version was slathered with a very rich chocolate mousse. In the course of making all these cakes, a lot of trimmings and leftover mousse were generated, most of which ended up in our stomachs. By the end of the month the taste of—heck, even the idea of—chocolate nauseated me. It was several months before I could bring myself to eat chocolate again.

Happily, that revulsion was only temporary, and I went on to specialize in chocolate as a career.

I can only eat cheap chocolate. More than a nibble of quality stuff will give me what feels like little cuts in my mouth. But I can eat a truckload of M&M’s without any problem.

It used to be, however, that I could survive on Godiva chocolate truffles. Perhaps some people build up a physiological sensitivity after a certain amount of indulgence – which is expressed as a repulsion. I know that I want nothing to do with good chocolate when I see it.

When I eat chocolate cake w. chocolate frosting, my face feels hot and looks red. I think it is a mild allergic symptom. So I force myself to eat a little dark choc. candy or drink an occasional cup of real cocoa.

Lucy has no problems.

@Gail, I loved that episode!

Repulsed chocolate? Are you serious? It’s one of my food groups!

I used to love chocolate, but it often gave me a headache. It got to the point that it gave me such a negative reaction including migraines that I avoid it most of the time. As a result of allergy testing, it was suggested that I never eat it again!