Eating chocolate is more exciting for people in relationships than kissing, a new study has found.

Romantically-attached couples taking part in the study were analysed as they ate dark chocolate and when they kissed.

Their responses were gauged through heart monitors and brain scans.

At the point that chocolate melted on tongues, all regions of the brain received a boost far more intense and longer-lasting than that created by kissing.

And although kissing did get people's hearts racing, the scientists found that chocolate had a bigger impact; in some people increasing beats from a resting rate of about 60 beats per minute to 140 per minute.

Women may be held to be the biggest chocolate fans, but the study found that it had the same impact on both sexes.

Lead author Dr David Lewis, a psychologist formerly of the University of Sussex who now works for the Mind Lab, said that the results "really surprised and intrigued us".