CHOCOLATE CHEMICALS WHY IS CHOCOLATE SOOTHING WOMEN CHOCOLATE ANDTHE BRAIN

CRAVING CHOCOLATE PHARMACOLOGY AND WOMEN AND CHOCOLATE THE BRAIN

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Women are said to have a craving for chocolate before and during menses.In fact just about everyone loves chocolate, finds it soothing and feels chocolate relaxes them. Yet researchers have yet to agree if this is a biological or psychological phenomenon. Is some chemical in the chocolate causing the attraction or is it because chocolate is just plain yummy? Dr. Debra Zellner, a professor at Montclair State University in New Jersey believes the woman chocolate thing is a cultural phenomenon," that women in the U.S. have the craving because they've turned chocolate into a nutritional taboo". For example, she found that women in Egypt are not longing for chocolate.

Psychoactive Chemicals in Chocolate

There are a variety of chemicals in chocolate that have been held up as candidates to explain it's soothing almost caressing properties. In fact according to published reports, chocolate contains more than 300 known chemicals.

This Is Your Brain on Chocolate



There are psychoactive chemicals in chocolate but the naysayers ask how could they possibly have an effect in the small quantities that are present.
Among the psychoactive chemicals in chocolate are:

caffeine

theobromine

related to caffeine

tyramine

Tyramine is a nervous system stimulant that is made naturally from the amino acid tyrosine. It's found in a variety of food products such as cheese and wine. People on the anti depressants called monoamine oxidase inhibitors are cautioned to avoid tyramine containing foods because tyramine accumulates in these people with nasty side effects like high blood pressure and migraine headaches.

sugar

phenylethylamine

What is this Thing About Chocolate?

Chocolate and A Brain Chemical That Mimics Marijuana

Anandamide, a substance that acts in our brain like the active ingredient in marijuana is a chemical that is produced in our brains in addition to being found in chocolate. Anandamid has been touted as the purported source of the "runners high".

Study Links Marijuana Buzz to 'Runner's High'.

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Anandamide (arachidonyl ethanolamide) is a chemical produced in our brain that scientists think is natural mimic of marijuana. Anandamide activates receptors in the brain that are activated by tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient in marijuana.Our body produces a chemical or chemicals that have endogenous cannabis (marijuana) like properties. The brain has marijuana receptors called thc receptors which is odd since marijuana is not a natural body chemical.



It turns out that chocolate has anandamide as well as two other chemicals,

N-oleoylethanolamine and

N-linoleoylethanolamine.


Daniele Piomelli, a scientist at the University of California, Irvine studies "the function of lipid-derived messengers, with particular emphasis on the endogenous cannabinoids anandamide and 2-arachidonylglycerol. In 1996, Emmanuelle di Tomaso and Piomelli found three substances in chocolate that "could act as cannabinoid mimics either directly (by activating cannabinoid receptors) or indirectly (by increasing anandamide levels)." Anandamide is also synthesized in areas of the brain that are important in memory and higher thought processes and in areas that control movement.That implies that anandamide's function is not just to produce bliss



In this audio interview Danielle Piomelli explains why he studies chocolate and the pharmacology of chocolate

Page from Exploratorium With Real Audio Interview With Piomelli.

Why Chocolate Makes Us Feel Good

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