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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey

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Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Bogelbaum. Here we humans tend to like chocolate.

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Speaker 1: As of seen, the global chocolate market was valued at

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Speaker 1: a hundred three billion dollars a year and growing. But

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Speaker 1: why eating chocolate makes us feel good? But how? Chocolate

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Speaker 1: contains several compounds that have been shown to act on

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Speaker 1: the brain in myriad ways, and most of them induce pleasure.

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Speaker 1: It's also long been believed that chocolate bestows heightened feelings

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Speaker 1: of sexuality upon the eater. Apparently as tech ruler Montezuma

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Speaker 1: bought into this. He said to have drunk goblets full

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Speaker 1: of Chuckolottle and unsweetened chocolate drink to boost his stamina

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Speaker 1: and libido. There's also a widely held belief that chocolate

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Speaker 1: can produce a euphoric feeling akin to a runner's high.

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Speaker 1: Our understanding of euphoria producing compounds, put together with the

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Speaker 1: modern concept of addiction, has even led some to believe

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Speaker 1: that one can be a chocolate addict. Is that even

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Speaker 1: possible can a person become addicted to chocolate. There's actually

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Speaker 1: more than one compound found in chocolate that could potentially

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Speaker 1: make a person high for starters. The most widely used

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Speaker 1: psychoactive drug in the world is found in chocolate caffeine.

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Speaker 1: It produces a stimulating physiological effect by exciting the central

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Speaker 1: nervous system, which in turn increases heart rate and contracts muscles.

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Speaker 1: It's a lot like the fight or flight response. Caffeine

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Speaker 1: acts on dopamine and adnasine receptors in the brain, which

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Speaker 1: then release their respective pleasure producing chemicals. Chocolate also contains

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Speaker 1: a compound that's closely related to the active ingredient in cannabis,

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Speaker 1: a cannabinoid called tetrahydrocannabinol. Nine fatty acids called cannabinoids hit

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Speaker 1: the c B one and c B two receptors found

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Speaker 1: most predominantly in the frontal cortex and the parts of

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Speaker 1: the brain responsible for motor function and memory. When cannabinoids

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Speaker 1: hit these receptors, a person starts to feel intoxicated and relaxed.

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Speaker 1: As a result, and as if that one two punch

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Speaker 1: of psychoactive stimulant and depressant wasn't enough, chocolate also packs

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Speaker 1: another surprise. Feenylethyl Amine is often called the love drug,

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Speaker 1: since it releases the same chemicals that are introduced into

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Speaker 1: the human body when love comes to call. The compound

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Speaker 1: produces a similar effect to the one produced by amphetamines

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Speaker 1: and is classified as a hallucinogen. It's also aces releasing

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Speaker 1: the pleasure producing chemicals dopamine and sarahtnin the combination produces

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Speaker 1: an exciting high much like the one generated by the

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Speaker 1: designer drug ecstasy. Chocolate has all of the ingredients needed

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Speaker 1: to make it a wonder drug. By all rights, eating

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Speaker 1: a bar of chocolate should send you into orbit. So

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Speaker 1: why isn't the stuff regulated by the FDA? Why aren't

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Speaker 1: chocolate bars sold from locked cabinets behind the pharmacy counter.

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Speaker 1: The truth is, while there are indeed pleasure inducing and

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Speaker 1: stimulating chemical compounds found in chocolate, the amounts of most

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Speaker 1: of these compounds are relatively small. As a result of

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Speaker 1: the energy drinks, coffee, cigarettes, and yes, chocolate that woman's consume.

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Speaker 1: These days, our brains become quite accustomed to the effects

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Speaker 1: of drugs that release pleasure inducing chemicals. Compounds that act

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Speaker 1: on receptors in the brain that release pleasure generating neurotransmitters,

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Speaker 1: like dopamine, work in two ways. They either bind to

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Speaker 1: the receptor, causing it to release the neurotransmitters, or they

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Speaker 1: bind to the site to prevent the reabsorption of those neurotransmitters.

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Speaker 1: Either way, there's a lot more of the chemical floating

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Speaker 1: around in your bloodstream. This process is how chocolate or

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Speaker 1: any other substance for that matter, gets its either high.

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Speaker 1: It's also why chocolate doesn't have much of an effect

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Speaker 1: on us. As the brain is exposed over and over

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Speaker 1: to a barrage of compounds, the number of receptors available

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Speaker 1: for the compounds to bind to actually decreases, and the

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Speaker 1: ones that remain are less easily triggered. The reason for

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Speaker 1: this reaction to drugs is the body's natural state of

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Speaker 1: seeking equilibrium. In other words, there's only supposed to be

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Speaker 1: so much dopamine or other pleasure producing chemicals in the body.

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Speaker 1: When hormones are released artificially by the compounds found in

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Speaker 1: chocolate or any other drug, the body seeks balance by

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Speaker 1: shutting down the receptors that release the hormones. As a result,

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Speaker 1: we become desensitized to the effects of these compounds over time.

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Speaker 1: Even if the compounds found in chocolate maybe two minute

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Speaker 1: for some of us to get a chocolate happy high,

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Speaker 1: the beloved food can still affect our happiness. The category

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Speaker 1: of self interest that encompasses our pursuit of happiness. Hedonism

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Speaker 1: definitely includes eating chocolate. We gain feelings of pleasure, comfort,

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Speaker 1: and gratification from it. The act of eating chocolate is hedonistic.

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Speaker 1: When we eat it, we're seeking pleasure and alleviating pain,

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Speaker 1: which are the hallmarks of hedonism. As we've seen, measuring

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Speaker 1: the exact effect of chocolate on our happiness can be difficult.

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Speaker 1: Most people, however, believe that such an effect exists. In fact,

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Speaker 1: one Canadian study examining the link between chocolate and happiness

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Speaker 1: ended with no conclusive results because the control group that

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Speaker 1: received no chocolate ended up raiding the refrigerator where the

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Speaker 1: chocolate used in the study was store, thus bombing the experiment.

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Speaker 1: While scientists have yet to discover what causes the relationship

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Speaker 1: between chocolate and happiness, studies have managed to turn up correlations.

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Speaker 1: One two seven studies surveyed one thousand, three hundred and

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Speaker 1: sixty seven respondents, all men in their seventies with similar

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Speaker 1: socioeconomic backgrounds, and asked questions about their health, satisfaction in life,

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Speaker 1: and emotions like happiness and loneliness. They also snuck in

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Speaker 1: a question that asked what kind of candy they preferred.

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Speaker 1: Those who preferred chocolate showed lower frequencies of depression and loneliness,

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Speaker 1: and had a more optimistic outlook on life. Even if

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Speaker 1: science never quite figures out what chocolate does to our moods,

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Speaker 1: does it really matter If eating chocolate makes you happy,

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Speaker 1: go for it. Today's episode was written by Josh Clark

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Speaker 1: and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a production

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Speaker 1: of I Heart radius How Stuff Works. To hear more

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Speaker 1: from Josh, check out his other shows, Stuff You Should

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Speaker 1: Know and End of the World with Josh Clark. And

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Speaker 1: for more on this and lots of others sweet topics,

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Speaker 1: visit our home planet, How Stuff Works dot com. Plus

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