Women's health * Weight loss
Are you addicted to chocolate? Information about this amazing substance.
Q. I'm ashamed to admit but I think I really am addicted to chocolate. I eat around 10 bars every day, the first being at 8am and I'm longing for it. If I don't get my chocolate I'm grumpy and I feel very low all day.
A. Many of us have a weakness for chocolate, in fact, in the UK we eat over 550,000 tons of it a year about 17lb per person! However, some people are indeed addicted to it and are true chocoholics. They aren't just eating it because it has a nice taste or texture, but because they are most probably getting a `drug' effect from it.
Chocolate which is obtained from the cocoa bean contains certain substances such as theobromine (the botanic name for the cocoa plant is Theobroma Cocoa) and caffeine, which are both central nervous stimulants they lift your mood and make you feel more lively and energetic. Many self confessed chocoholics will admit to intense overpowering cravings, that may cause them to drive out late at night to find an all night garage in order to get their chocolate. These cravings are relieved almost instantly as soon as the chocolate hits the palate! In fact, many smokers when giving up cigarettes will turn to chocolate for `comfort', probably because they are missing the stimulant effect of nicotine in tobacco, but they experience a similar `lift' from the theobromine in chocolate.
Amphetamine addicts have also been known to go on wild chocolate orgies when in a down state!!
Q. I've heard that chocolate is an aphrodisiac, is there any truth in that?
A. Chocolate has been around for over 3,000 years. The Aztecs believed it was a gift from the Gods, and was highly valued for it's seemingly medicinal properties and also it's aphrodisiac properties. Casanova declared that he drank it instead of champagne, as it was a violent inflamer of passions! We certainly we give our loved ones exotically wrapped boxes of chocolates as a token of our love!! Researchers have found that there is another chemical in chocolate, also found in the human brain, called phenylethylamine (fee nile eeth eye lay meen), which produces emotional highs not unlike the feeling of being in love! These reseachers also alleged that there is no other food as high in phenyethylamine as chocolate.
Q.Why is chocolate often a vital ingredient of survival packs for mountaineers and explorers?
A. Primarily because it will certainly provide you with energy quickly, as it supplies sugar, protein, fat, calcium, phosphorus, iron, sodium, potassium, Vitamin A, thiamine, ribolfavin and niacin .... all in a compact, easy to carry bar!!
"Chocolate is not only pleasant to taste, but it is a veritable balm of the mouth, for the maintaining of all the glands and humours in a good state of health. Thus it is that all who drink it, possess a sweet breath"
Dr. S. Blancardi, Amsterdam 1705.
WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT?
New research has shown that a bar of chocolate could make some people fail a breatherlyser test!
Doctors have revealed that some people produce alcohol when they digest glucose. This unusual situation can occur, particularly whilst taking antibiotics, which kill off stomach bacteria and allow yeasts to multiply and ferment the glucose into alcohol!
After fasting and avoiding alcohol for three hours patients were given 5G. of glucose, surprisingly some of the patients had blood alcohol levels as high as 19.7mgm/100ml., which is below the upper legal limit of 80mgm/100ml. However, the standard chocolate bar contains 45Gms of carbohydrate nine times the amount given to these patients, and that could easily put them over the limit! "Well, officer, you won't believe this, but ......."!!!!
Image © vgstudio - Fotolia.com
Chocolate and chocoholics
Are you addicted to chocolate? Information about this amazing substance.
Q. I'm ashamed to admit but I think I really am addicted to chocolate. I eat around 10 bars every day, the first being at 8am and I'm longing for it. If I don't get my chocolate I'm grumpy and I feel very low all day.
A. Many of us have a weakness for chocolate, in fact, in the UK we eat over 550,000 tons of it a year about 17lb per person! However, some people are indeed addicted to it and are true chocoholics. They aren't just eating it because it has a nice taste or texture, but because they are most probably getting a `drug' effect from it.
Chocolate which is obtained from the cocoa bean contains certain substances such as theobromine (the botanic name for the cocoa plant is Theobroma Cocoa) and caffeine, which are both central nervous stimulants they lift your mood and make you feel more lively and energetic. Many self confessed chocoholics will admit to intense overpowering cravings, that may cause them to drive out late at night to find an all night garage in order to get their chocolate. These cravings are relieved almost instantly as soon as the chocolate hits the palate! In fact, many smokers when giving up cigarettes will turn to chocolate for `comfort', probably because they are missing the stimulant effect of nicotine in tobacco, but they experience a similar `lift' from the theobromine in chocolate.
Amphetamine addicts have also been known to go on wild chocolate orgies when in a down state!!
Q. I've heard that chocolate is an aphrodisiac, is there any truth in that?
A. Chocolate has been around for over 3,000 years. The Aztecs believed it was a gift from the Gods, and was highly valued for it's seemingly medicinal properties and also it's aphrodisiac properties. Casanova declared that he drank it instead of champagne, as it was a violent inflamer of passions! We certainly we give our loved ones exotically wrapped boxes of chocolates as a token of our love!! Researchers have found that there is another chemical in chocolate, also found in the human brain, called phenylethylamine (fee nile eeth eye lay meen), which produces emotional highs not unlike the feeling of being in love! These reseachers also alleged that there is no other food as high in phenyethylamine as chocolate.
Q.Why is chocolate often a vital ingredient of survival packs for mountaineers and explorers?
A. Primarily because it will certainly provide you with energy quickly, as it supplies sugar, protein, fat, calcium, phosphorus, iron, sodium, potassium, Vitamin A, thiamine, ribolfavin and niacin .... all in a compact, easy to carry bar!!
"Chocolate is not only pleasant to taste, but it is a veritable balm of the mouth, for the maintaining of all the glands and humours in a good state of health. Thus it is that all who drink it, possess a sweet breath"
Dr. S. Blancardi, Amsterdam 1705.
WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT?
New research has shown that a bar of chocolate could make some people fail a breatherlyser test!
Doctors have revealed that some people produce alcohol when they digest glucose. This unusual situation can occur, particularly whilst taking antibiotics, which kill off stomach bacteria and allow yeasts to multiply and ferment the glucose into alcohol!
After fasting and avoiding alcohol for three hours patients were given 5G. of glucose, surprisingly some of the patients had blood alcohol levels as high as 19.7mgm/100ml., which is below the upper legal limit of 80mgm/100ml. However, the standard chocolate bar contains 45Gms of carbohydrate nine times the amount given to these patients, and that could easily put them over the limit! "Well, officer, you won't believe this, but ......."!!!!
This article was published on Mon 26 October 1992
Image © vgstudio - Fotolia.com
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