Ask These Girls

As a chocoholic, I must admit there are few things as appealing as a good, old fashioned chocolate bar. Hershey’s Kisses are my chocolate of the moment, and as the bag vanishes at an alarming rate, I look to justify my gorging on this scrumptious delicacy. After a history lesson in the world of chocolate, I found some interesting facts concerning scientific research and the chemical makeup of chocolate.

Chocolate is one of those comfort foods I relish whole-heartedly. Picking up a few Skittles, Twizzler, or Starbursts do not do the same thing for me as picking up a Reeses or Snickers. So I had to ask myself why chocolate was so special. Why do other candies not have the same affect on me as a simple piece of chocolate?

My first discovery was the fact chocolate contains over 300 diverse chemicals, and those are the ones the scientists have discovered. I want to be a chocolate scientist. Why didn’t I know about those types of scientists as a child? Anyway, there are a few chemicals in chocolate I found extremely interesting: caffeine, phenyl-ethylamine, anandamide, theobromine, tryophan, and magnesium.

When I first saw those enormous words, I just wanted to go back to eating my chocolate savoring the flavor without knowing what the words actually meant, but I like to know what is in my preferred snack. As I started reading what each of those chemicals does, I was shocked to find how each one seemed to hold truth in my life.

• Caffeine: Everyone knows what caffeine does. Caffeine acts as a stimulant or pick-me-upper to the human body. There is not a lot of caffeine in chocolate, and a cup of decaf coffee has considerably more caffeine that chocolate does.
• Phenylethylamine: This is probably one of the most controversial chemicals found in chocolate. Everyone has ideas of how this chemical with a big name affects the human brain when combined with all the other chemicals. To start, the human brain naturally has trace amounts of this chemical. This is the chemical responsible for the release of dopamine; dopamine is directly connected with our pleasure states. Think of all those happy, pleasurable, stimulating moments in your life, and you will be remembering times in your life when you had elevated amounts of dopamine in your system.
• Anandamide: Because of this specific chemical, chocolate has been rumored to get a person high as if they have smoked marijuana. However, there is no THC in chocolate. Instead, chocolate elevates the same receptors as THC does offering a sort of pseudo-pyschoactive experience as does the THC found in marijuana.
• Theobromine: This chemical, in strong enough doses, words similar to an opiate on the body. Speculation has been if you could get theobromine out of chocolate, at high enough doses you would have the perfect replacement for prescription cough medicine.
• Tryptophan: Tryptophan is one of the essential amino acids. This plays with the serotonin levels in the brain, but a person would have to have a seriously high-carb and low-protein diet to notice the anti-anxiety affects caused by increased serotonin.
• Magnesium: Every person has to have magnesium in his or her diet. As a trace mineral, a woman’s magnesium levels will fluctuate with their menses. Chocolate is a food rich in magnesium; the cravings may be related to the fact that between ovulation and menstruation progesterone reduces the bodies usage of fat as fuel. Chocolate replenishes the magnesium levels sating the fatty cravings many women get during that time.

The next time I eat any chocolate, I will definitely be pondering what chemical or chemical combination my body is looking to achieve. If you ask me, chocolate is the next best thing to a happy pill. The next time I feel guilty for munching on a bag of Hershey’s Kisses, I will remember that scientists have proven chocolate helps the mind, body, and I say it helps the soul.

Did You Know?

Rumor has it some anti-depressants will actually reduce those chocolate cravings, but many chocoholics claim this is far from the truth.

Some people believe chocolate eaten with medical marijuana will actually decrease the amount of marijuana necessary for the desired effect.

Theobromine can be fatal for dogs, cats, horses, birds, and small rodents. One bar of dark chocolate could kill a 60-pound dog.