Posted on 12/11/2007 3:17:47 PM PST by blam
Chocolate Is The Most Widely Craved Food, But Is It Really Addictive?
ScienceDaily (Sep. 12, 2007) — Chocolate is the most widely and frequently craved food. People readily admit to being 'addicted to chocolate' or willingly label themselves as 'chocoholics'. A popular explanation for this is that chocolate contains mood-enhancing (psychoactive) ingredients that give it special appeal.
Polyphenol antioxidant Evidence and logic, however, find little support for this. Substances present in chocolate which have been highlighted as potentially pharmacologically significant include serotonin, tryptophan, phenylethylamine, tyramine and cannabinoids. However, many of these compounds exist in higher concentrations in other foods with less appeal than chocolate.
Professor Peter Rogers, from the University of Bristol, UK, explains: "A more compelling explanation lies in our ambivalent attitudes towards chocolate -- it is highly desired but should be eaten with restraint (nice but naughty). Our unfulfilled desire to eat chocolate, resulting from restraint, is thus experienced as craving, which in turn is attributed to 'addiction'."
A further observation is that the most widely preferred chocolate is milk chocolate and chocolate-covered confectionery. These contain a lower amount of cocoa solids, and therefore a lower concentration of potentially psychoactive compounds, than 'dark' chocolate which is not so widely craved.
It is therefore far more plausible to suggest that a liking for chocolate, and its effects on mood, are due mainly to its principal constituents, sugar and fat, and their related orosensory and nutritional effects.
The evidence as to whether chocolate can really become addictive is examined by Professor Peter Rogers from the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Uk.
Adapted from materials provided by University of Bristol.
Dove dark chocolate comes pretty close.
You can drink it
You can crave it
You can drive it
Seems to be missing one. LJ? Would you be so kind as to supply the graphic?
I agree - Ghirardelli dark is also very good. Hershey’s tastes ghastly by comparison, and deserves a worldwide boycott. ;)
This is a useful and insightful comment. Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that no chemical has "addictive" qualities per se.
Here’s a link to what some consider the best
http://money.cnn.com/2003/04/16/pf/saving/q_chocolate/index.htm
If you like almonds or Hazelnuts, try the Ritter Sport Bars. The chocolate is excellent and the Almonds (my favorite) add just the right amount of pop and flavor.
This is sorta fun also. How about the worlds most expensive chocolate.
http://www.forbes.com/2006/02/07/cx_sy_0208featslide.html?thisSpeed=35000&boxes=custom
I thought it was beer.
IMHO, Ghiradelli dark chocolate is probably the best dark chocolate I’ve ever had - it melts so readily, so smooth, and so chocolatey. Lindt dark chocolate is good, but for me only up to their stuff that’s 60% cocoa. Beyond that it’s just too bitter and slow melting for my tastes.
One of my favorites is “Ice Cubes”. Don’t even know if they’re still being made. They’re the milk chocolate cubes that when you bite into them they melt really quickly all the time giving a little bit of a cool sensation. Strange, but really, really good.
This thread is for you my FRiend PING!
I think its the sugar thats mixed in thats addictive.
I’m not addicted. I can stop any old time I WANT to. ;)
Actually, we were snowed in at work today. Toward the end of the day I told my lone co-worker...I’ll be back in a bit...I’m going to go find us some CHOCOLATE! And by Golly, I did!
And we were both made whole again and we both made it home to our families intact because we had a sugar and caffeine buzz going for the snowy/icy drive home. We were both totally alert and had the reflexes of a cat!
Chocolate. Saves. Lives. I am living proof! :)
Any Lindt chocolate is great...
If you like Dove then you’ll love Lindt Lindor (Swiss chocolate.) I prefer milk chocolate but they have the truffles in dark chocolate too. You can buy them almost anywhere.
Belgian chocolate is generally the best. Trader Joe’s has a 60% cocoa bar that has a great taste and texture and is not very expensive...and it’s made in Belgium.
Oh, that is SO cute! I just wish those “Smiley” programmers would quit peaking in my windows, LOL! :)
I agree. See my post below yours :)
btt
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