What you have seen is called an “anecdote”. As soon as you provide evidence which proves what you say is true then we can discuss why that might be. In the meanwhile I do not see why tyour anecdotes should be given any more weight than anybody else’s.
ultrafilter and ivn1188 have done the hard work for me, so you will now have to go back to sociologist paradise and cry for a bit my friend 
Too much chocolate.
I think I’d reword the question as “Why is it more socially acceptable for women to absolutely gush over chocolate than it is for men? And act like it some amazing antidote to all life’s stresses?” And why are men expected to (the manly-man version of) gush over steak?
Where do any ideas about “gender-appropriate” foods come from? I can’t tell you how many people have tried to convince me I should prefer margaritas to beer just because I don’t have a Y chromosome.
Although I will say that 26 days of 28 I find chocolate pretty blah, but it does make me feel a little better the first couple days of my period (I can’t say I ever “crave” it or anything though). So maybe that’s part of it?
As I understand it, women appear to be wired to like sweets more than men; men are wired to like meat more than women ( and in larger portions ). The reason is probably because among our distant not-quite-human ancestors, men hunted and women gathered, exclusively or nearly so. Women who scarfed down berries got fed better than those who didn’t, were more likely to survive and breed, and so women collectively inherited a sweet tooth. The men apparently ate their meat at the site of the kill, taking very little back to camp with them; so the ones that loved meat and liked large portions got fed better.
I agree. I’m not a huge fan of chocolate (though I do like chili-dark chocolate!). But around the start of my period, I like it a lot more, and maybe sometimes even crave it.
I also agree that there is socialisation at work here. Liking sweets isn’t very manly; (in some cultures) liking beer (or steak) isn’t very feminine. I was actually sneered at by a friend of a friend in England who saw me drinking a beer – she said (and I quote) ‘well that’s not very ladylike!’. This could be based partially in the biology (as Der Trihs notes), but the negative social reaction is something else.
Get those Vikings out of here!
Read the articles that were cited more carefully. They do not say that women like chocolate more than men. They say that chocolate satisfies hunger more in women on average than in men. In other words, it’s not that women take more pleasure than men while eating chocolate on average, it’s that on average they feel less hungry afterwards because it’s affected their hypothalamus more and that causes them to decrease their hunger more.
that can’t be right, it’s the heffers who like chocolate the most!
In other words, Angry Lurker, you want to ignore scientific evidence only when it disagrees with your opinions.
Both articles make it clear that structures other than the hypothalamus–in particular, the amygdala–are differentially affected in men and women in response to chocolate. So it’s a little strong to say that it’s just a matter of hunger.
I never heard anyone gush over chocolate or steak outside of a romantic comedy. My husband loves chocolate, I can’t keep any in the house. I used to like chocolate until it started giving me migraines . I love steak and he couldn’t care less,
Maybe it has to do with their irrational love of horses.
My dad loves chocolate. He’s a sucker for sweets in general, but the man loves some chocolate. My mom frowns on all sorts of sweets, so she would only buy us things that weren’t very tasty in the false hope that we would try it, retch, and then move on to lima beans or something.
So she used to buy us neopolitan ice cream. It was the cheap cardboard-tasting stuff that comes in a box and most sane people wouldn’t eat. Except for me and dad. And both of us could only stomach the chocolate stripe. My sister only liked the strawberry stripe.
It lead inevitably to a situation where me and my dad warred over who would have the greater amount of chocolate cardboard, and my sister would half-heartedly have about a tablespoon of the strawberry stuff a day, and the vanilla would stay untouched. We would carefully cut around the vanilla, so eventually there would be this perfectly rectangular ice cream block in the very center of the box.
Anyway…my anecdote cancels out your anecdote and we should turn to science!
I promise Lilbro is male, and he’s been known to eat three tablets at one standing. Last time he did it, I sent him to the supermarket right away… I’d just arrived from doing the shopping, put the stuff away, gone to the bathroom, and by the time I was out of the bathroom he’d eaten all three full, brand new tablets.
So “men don’t binge on chocolate” mine ass.
Another woman who gets a huge craving for chocolate right before her period comes in. Mind you, in my case “a huge craving” gets solved by one square of 85% black.
These sound like the typical “the exception is the norm” answers. “Most of the men I know crave chocolate. In fact, most of the women I know absolutely despise chocolate.”
Yeah, I like chocolate, but my ex-girlfriend would go nuts over it. At any high-end grocery store, she’s stop at the displays of exotic fair-trade free range chocolate and contemplate a potential purchase for quite a while, while I didn’t give that section of the store any more attention than the other parts. (No, she wasn’t fat; she otherwise ate a very healthy vegetarian diet.)
No, but I will be more skeptical when it goes against what I think…
I heard a doctor once say if chocolate were discovered today, it would be considered a health food…high in anti-oxidants.
For me, it’s because it’s a treat. The thought of eating an entire bar of Hershey’s? Heavens, no, my waistline! But a Mr. Goodbar miniature? Yes, please.
This question strikes me as insane.
I’m a dude, and I simply love, love, love chocolate. God gave us chocolate because he knew not all of us would find find true love. It is the greatest of his creations.
Well, that and Kristen Chenoweth.
Cocoa, not chocolate.