Can you become addicted to chocolate? Harvard Health Publications editor Dr. Michael Craig Miller says yes. Brain studies show volunteers drinking chocolate milkshakes exhibited brain activity similar to that caused by addiction to some drugs. Not surprising. Chocolate contains lots of phenylethylamine, the chemical produced in the brain when you are in love. The term "chocoholic" comes to mind. Although usually said in jest, chocolate can be said to be addictive because It can create an intense craving for a substance with high levels of fat and sugar and a unique and pleasant taste that makes overindulgence hard to resist for many chocolate lovers. First cultivated around 1500 B.C by the Olmec tribe in southern Mexico, the cacao plant that produces chocolate was used by the elite classes of both Mayans and Aztecs, who called cocoa, the raw product produced by the plant, the food of the gods. Tonacatecuti, ancient Mexican goddess of food, and Calchiuhtlucue, goddess of water, were said to be the guardian goddesses of cocoa. Each year human sacrifices were allegedly performed for them after the victim had eaten a last meal of cocoa. Hot chocolate and much of the chocolate we eat today is not real chocolate produced from the cacao plant and therefore does not contain the beneficial ingredients that cocoa contains. A bit confusing. I suggest you check the ingredients panels on the "chocolate" products you buy to make sure you are getting a product containing cocoa and not just fat, sugar, and artificial flavors.
RSS Feed