Is Chocolate Physiologically or Psychologically Addictive? Chocolate is made from the seeds of the tropical tree, Theobroma cacao. Theobroma is the Greek term for 'food of the gods.' In Aztec society chocolate was a food of the gods, reserved for priests, warriors and nobility. The Aztecs used cacao beans to make a hot, frothy and bitter beverage called chocolatl. Chocolatl was a sacred concoction that was associated with fertility and wisdom. It was also thought to have stimulating and restorative properties. The bitter drink was first introduced to Europe in 1528. However, it was not until 1876 that milk, cocoa powder and cocoa butter were combined to form what we now know as chocolate (1). Today, production and consumption of chocolate is a global affair. People crave chocolate more than any other food. In the United States, the typical person eats 11.5 pounds of chocolate annually (2). What makes chocolate the food that is craved more often than any other food? Yes, chocolate tastes good, has a beautiful texture and melts in your mouth, but there must be more to chocolate than what meets the lips. In fact, chocolate is made up of chemicals associated with mood, emotion and addiction. Many people eat chocolate as a comfort food when they are depressed or stressed. The question is, do people crave chocolate because their bodies and brains are addicted to the chemicals in it or do people crave chocolate because they have a psychological attachment to it? Substances found in chocolate, such as phenylethylamine, theobromine, anandamide and tryptophan trigger mood enhancing chemicals and neurotransmitters to be released in the brain. Phenylethylamine is a chemical found in the body that is similar to amphetamine. It he... ... middle of paper ... ...es 1)CHOCOLATE, on the Chocolate web site http://www.chocolate.org/ 2)Prescription-strength chocolate, on the Science News Online-Food for Thought web site http://www.science.org/sn_arch/10_12_96/food.htm 3)Chocolate and Anxiety, on the About the Human Internet web site http://panicdisorder.about.com/cs/shfitness/a/chocolate.htm 4)Theobromine: Chocolate's Caffeine Cousin, on the About the Human Internet web site http://chemistry.about.com/library/weekly/?once=true& 5)Chocolate "addiction" A Fiction?, on the Personal MC web site http://www.personalmd.com/news/a1998121611.shtml 6)Health and Happiness-does chocolate have it all wrapped up?, on the IFIS Hot Topic web site http://www.ifis.co.uk/index.html 7)Chocolate: A heart-healthy confection?, on the CNN web site http://archives.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/diet.fitness/02/02/chocolate.wmd/
In Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquivel shows us that food can have an emotional connection with the consumer. Food is powerful. Depending on the situation or mood, food can make people, happy, angry or sad. Esquivel shows us perspective of the lives of women and how food has an influence on people.
University of North Carolina, 2010. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. <http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/1866> Coe, Sophie D., and Michael D. Coe. The True History of Chocolate.
In today’s culture, being tan coincides with what is believed to be beautiful. As a result, it is no surprise that in the United States of America, an estimated 922,000 people are currently living with some level of melanoma. Even though the news media and doctors warn people about the risks of too much sun exposure and give information as to how to prevent contracting skin cancer, people are still disregarding this important information and going into the sun for extended periods of time unprotected.
Informing you on a everyday thing some girls do, which is tanning. Two main questions you have to ask yourself is it healthy? And will it cause skin cancer ? Well to answer both of those questions you can get skin cancer, and it is healthy for you. Only some parts of it is healthy though, not all of it. And thats what we will be explaining in this paper today. We both do tan so we’re not against it and see the good thing about tanning. Not everyone has to be on our side, some people may like tanning naturally better to begin with.
Stern, Guy. "The Burning of the Books in Nazi Germany, 1933: The American Response." 2 . Annual 2 Chapter 05-Simon Wiesenthal Center Multimedia Learning Center. The Simon , . Wiesenthal Center, 1997. Web. 03 Nov. 2013.
Indoor tanning is becoming a very popular “hobby”, but most people do not know, or do not care, about its dangerous side effects. Studies show that people who use tanning booths have a much higher chance of being diagnosed with skin cancer. If someone were to start tanning indoors before they turn 30 or 25, the risk of them getting Melanoma peaks, and if they start tanning before they turn 20 or 25, they are much more likely to get basal and squamous cancer.
Kaur, M., MD. “Tanning Booth Junkies”. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatolody.56:375-9(2007). Web. 15 Mar.2010
When cacao became available in Spain, it was modified with cinnamon and other spices; sugar was used to sweeten the mix. Somehow they were able to keep their drink invention among them for nearly 100 years before it escaped to Europe. Sweetened chocolate became an extreme craze for the continent. In a letter of 1779, a viceroy noted: “In this country [New Spain] cacao is primary food not only for persons of means as in other countries, but also among the poor people.” It seems that the people of Spain were content with sharing this savory chocolate among all the people, rather than those in other parts of Europe.
Before looking into the chemical and psychological effects of chocolate, it is important to go back in time and see where chocolate originated. Even from the very beginning chocolate was viewed as a powerful food. The idea of chocolate first began in 1500 BC when the Pre-Olmecs and Mokaya peoples found that the beans that grew on the cacao trees could be used as food (Semenak, "Chocolate in History"). Moving forward to 600, the Mayan and Aztec civilizations used the chocolate beans in a more meaningful way. The Mayans created a drink from the beans and drank it during weddings and other important ceremonies. Only those of the highest class could indulge in what the Mayans referred to as the “God Food” ("Food: The History of Chocolate"). Similarly, the Aztecs created a drink out of the cacao beans, and according to Susan Semenak’s 2012 newspaper article, “Chocolate in History,” the Aztecs used it as a “love potion.” Pretty soon, the beans became so c...
Jazz, which evolved from African American folk music, has developed and changed over the last century to become an art form in America. It places particular importance on inventive self interpretation. Rather than relying on a written piece, the artist improvises. Jazz has taken many forms over the past seventy years; there is almost always a single person who can be credited with the evolution of that sound. From Thelonius Monk, and his bebop, to Dizzy Gillespie’s big band, to Miles Davis’ cool jazz, or to John Coltrane’s free jazz; America’s music has been developed and refined countless times through individual experimentation and innovation. In my opinion the most noteworthy artist in the development of modern jazz is John Coltrane. In this paper, I will focus on the way in which Coltrane’s musical originality was related to the sounds of his predecessors and to the tribulations and tragedies of his life.
Probably some of the most pleasurable and enjoyable memories of a person has to do with sweets. When thinking back to birthdays, there is always the memory of the wonderful cake that mother beautifully made and decorated with frosting and glazes. A typical night out with dad can be transformed into a magical evening with a trip to the ice cream parlor. The end of a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner turns heavenly when a hot apple pie is brought to the table and topped with delicious, melting vanilla ice cream. A good wedding is never complete without the cutting of the splendid multi-level wedding cake, when the happy new couple gets to playfully shove and smear cake and white frosting into each other’s smiling faces. Everyone knows that as a child, the only good part about going to the dentist is getting the candy bar at the end of the visit. Why do some people get sick after eating too much suger? Some people do not even know that the abuse of sugar can lead to negative effects on your body. There is something strangely enjoyable and resplendent about the consumption of sugar. Why is it that sugar is so deliciously enjoyable and at the same time a food product that has many negative affects on people’s health?
Addictive drugs like nicotine and cocaine and heroin, all can rewire the brain to crave the satisfaction that these agents produce. The desire becomes so strong that it starts to take over the body and it no longer becomes for pleasure and it becomes a need for your body. Now likewise, some people argue that some foods have the same power and effects on people that drugs do, where some of these foods can alter the brain in a way that is resets the appetite and satisfaction threshold in a way that it’s out of reach, meaning a person can never have enough. The obesity levels these days semi-dangerous, so some doctors have conducted an experiment that tested the effects of some foods on the brain, where they took 12 obese men after they consumed two milkshakes, whit the same amount of calories, protein, fat and carbohydrates, and they were equally sweet. (Sifferlin 2013) On the other hand one milkshake had much higher glycemic index from the carbohydrates. After the a few hours the blood sugar levels went down leaving the men hungry again. But after they ate the region of the brain that is related to addictive drugs and behaviors was triggered. In this paper food addiction is discussed and shown that it is a real problem that further critical analysis and experiments should be conducted on such issue.
Fryer, Peter, and Kerstin Pinschower. "The Material Science of Chocolate." Mrs Bulletin December 2000: 1-5.
As we know chocolate is an unhealthy food option most of us have, it also is in one of the most popular food group, junk food. Everyone has some “junk food” in some point of their life these days; though its consumption is even more popular in the United States. Many Americans are becoming more and more obese over the last century partially due to that fact. According to Dr. Jeffrey Fortuna, author of the article The Obesity Epidemic And Food Addiction: Clinical Similarities To Drug Dependence, “As of 2010 nearly 70% of adult Americans were overweight or obese. Specifically, 35.7% of adult Americans are obese, and this is the highest level of obesity in the recorded history of the United States” (Fortuna, p. 1). I began to wonder if it could be possible that these people have become addicted to the junk food that they crave leading to these unsettling statistics. From the same article, The Obesity Epidemic And Food Addiction: Clinical Similarities To Drug Dependence, I learned that food does possess addictive qualities. There were biological and psychological factors that were similar to those of drug addictions. “They are: (1) cravings for specific drugs and palatable foods exist in many of the same neural path-ways, and; (2)...
The 58 million pounds of chocolate eaten on chocolate the drenched holiday of Valentines Day is likely made from cocoa beans from West Africa. The Ivory Coast, also known as Cote D'ivoire in Africa is the source of about 35 percent of the world’s cocoa production. These cocoa beans were likely harvested by unpaid child workers that are being held captive on plantations as slaves. Chocolate companies use these cocoa plantations as their cocoa source for their chocolate products. And since the companies want to maximize their profit, they push plantation owners to lower prices, causing plantations to cut price any way possible (Philpott).