Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Bogelbaum. Here we humans tend to like chocolate.
Speaker 1: As of seen, the global chocolate market was valued at
Speaker 1: a hundred three billion dollars a year and growing. But
Speaker 1: why eating chocolate makes us feel good? But how? Chocolate
Speaker 1: contains several compounds that have been shown to act on
Speaker 1: the brain in myriad ways, and most of them induce pleasure.
Speaker 1: It's also long been believed that chocolate bestows heightened feelings
Speaker 1: of sexuality upon the eater. Apparently as tech ruler Montezuma
Speaker 1: bought into this. He said to have drunk goblets full
Speaker 1: of Chuckolottle and unsweetened chocolate drink to boost his stamina
Speaker 1: and libido. There's also a widely held belief that chocolate
Speaker 1: can produce a euphoric feeling akin to a runner's high.
Speaker 1: Our understanding of euphoria producing compounds, put together with the
Speaker 1: modern concept of addiction, has even led some to believe
Speaker 1: that one can be a chocolate addict. Is that even
Speaker 1: possible can a person become addicted to chocolate. There's actually
Speaker 1: more than one compound found in chocolate that could potentially
Speaker 1: make a person high for starters. The most widely used
Speaker 1: psychoactive drug in the world is found in chocolate caffeine.
Speaker 1: It produces a stimulating physiological effect by exciting the central
Speaker 1: nervous system, which in turn increases heart rate and contracts muscles.
Speaker 1: It's a lot like the fight or flight response. Caffeine
Speaker 1: acts on dopamine and adnasine receptors in the brain, which
Speaker 1: then release their respective pleasure producing chemicals. Chocolate also contains
Speaker 1: a compound that's closely related to the active ingredient in cannabis,
Speaker 1: a cannabinoid called tetrahydrocannabinol. Nine fatty acids called cannabinoids hit
Speaker 1: the c B one and c B two receptors found
Speaker 1: most predominantly in the frontal cortex and the parts of
Speaker 1: the brain responsible for motor function and memory. When cannabinoids
Speaker 1: hit these receptors, a person starts to feel intoxicated and relaxed.
Speaker 1: As a result, and as if that one two punch
Speaker 1: of psychoactive stimulant and depressant wasn't enough, chocolate also packs
Speaker 1: another surprise. Feenylethyl Amine is often called the love drug,
Speaker 1: since it releases the same chemicals that are introduced into
Speaker 1: the human body when love comes to call. The compound
Speaker 1: produces a similar effect to the one produced by amphetamines
Speaker 1: and is classified as a hallucinogen. It's also aces releasing
Speaker 1: the pleasure producing chemicals dopamine and sarahtnin the combination produces
Speaker 1: an exciting high much like the one generated by the
Speaker 1: designer drug ecstasy. Chocolate has all of the ingredients needed
Speaker 1: to make it a wonder drug. By all rights, eating
Speaker 1: a bar of chocolate should send you into orbit. So
Speaker 1: why isn't the stuff regulated by the FDA? Why aren't
Speaker 1: chocolate bars sold from locked cabinets behind the pharmacy counter.
Speaker 1: The truth is, while there are indeed pleasure inducing and
Speaker 1: stimulating chemical compounds found in chocolate, the amounts of most
Speaker 1: of these compounds are relatively small. As a result of
Speaker 1: the energy drinks, coffee, cigarettes, and yes, chocolate that woman's consume.
Speaker 1: These days, our brains become quite accustomed to the effects
Speaker 1: of drugs that release pleasure inducing chemicals. Compounds that act
Speaker 1: on receptors in the brain that release pleasure generating neurotransmitters,
Speaker 1: like dopamine, work in two ways. They either bind to
Speaker 1: the receptor, causing it to release the neurotransmitters, or they
Speaker 1: bind to the site to prevent the reabsorption of those neurotransmitters.
Speaker 1: Either way, there's a lot more of the chemical floating
Speaker 1: around in your bloodstream. This process is how chocolate or
Speaker 1: any other substance for that matter, gets its either high.
Speaker 1: It's also why chocolate doesn't have much of an effect
Speaker 1: on us. As the brain is exposed over and over
Speaker 1: to a barrage of compounds, the number of receptors available
Speaker 1: for the compounds to bind to actually decreases, and the
Speaker 1: ones that remain are less easily triggered. The reason for
Speaker 1: this reaction to drugs is the body's natural state of
Speaker 1: seeking equilibrium. In other words, there's only supposed to be
Speaker 1: so much dopamine or other pleasure producing chemicals in the body.
Speaker 1: When hormones are released artificially by the compounds found in
Speaker 1: chocolate or any other drug, the body seeks balance by
Speaker 1: shutting down the receptors that release the hormones. As a result,
Speaker 1: we become desensitized to the effects of these compounds over time.
Speaker 1: Even if the compounds found in chocolate maybe two minute
Speaker 1: for some of us to get a chocolate happy high,
Speaker 1: the beloved food can still affect our happiness. The category
Speaker 1: of self interest that encompasses our pursuit of happiness. Hedonism
Speaker 1: definitely includes eating chocolate. We gain feelings of pleasure, comfort,
Speaker 1: and gratification from it. The act of eating chocolate is hedonistic.
Speaker 1: When we eat it, we're seeking pleasure and alleviating pain,
Speaker 1: which are the hallmarks of hedonism. As we've seen, measuring
Speaker 1: the exact effect of chocolate on our happiness can be difficult.
Speaker 1: Most people, however, believe that such an effect exists. In fact,
Speaker 1: one Canadian study examining the link between chocolate and happiness
Speaker 1: ended with no conclusive results because the control group that
Speaker 1: received no chocolate ended up raiding the refrigerator where the
Speaker 1: chocolate used in the study was store, thus bombing the experiment.
Speaker 1: While scientists have yet to discover what causes the relationship
Speaker 1: between chocolate and happiness, studies have managed to turn up correlations.
Speaker 1: One two seven studies surveyed one thousand, three hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty seven respondents, all men in their seventies with similar
Speaker 1: socioeconomic backgrounds, and asked questions about their health, satisfaction in life,
Speaker 1: and emotions like happiness and loneliness. They also snuck in
Speaker 1: a question that asked what kind of candy they preferred.
Speaker 1: Those who preferred chocolate showed lower frequencies of depression and loneliness,
Speaker 1: and had a more optimistic outlook on life. Even if
Speaker 1: science never quite figures out what chocolate does to our moods,
Speaker 1: does it really matter If eating chocolate makes you happy,
Speaker 1: go for it. Today's episode was written by Josh Clark
Speaker 1: and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart radius How Stuff Works. To hear more
Speaker 1: from Josh, check out his other shows, Stuff You Should
Speaker 1: Know and End of the World with Josh Clark. And
Speaker 1: for more on this and lots of others sweet topics,
Speaker 1: visit our home planet, How Stuff Works dot com. Plus
Speaker 1: for more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeart
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Speaker 1: favorite shows. H