By Kate Hakala
I am certain that I am a woman. Here’s proof: these two mammary glands, my monthly menstruation and, oh yes, I am utterly addicted to chocolate.
The way I eat chocolate — the way I fiend for it — you’d think there was some Darwinian motivation behind it. Throughout my life, I have always kept a bar in the freezer or surreptitiously brought the chocolate chips back to my bed for a midnight to three a.m. snack. And I’m not alone; the US consumer eats about 12 pounds of chocolate a year.
So, why am I craving the brown stuff almost every day? I know people dub themselves “chocoholics,” but is there any proof that doing cocoa is actually physically addictive? And if we’re chowing down the 3,400-year-old treat like it is going out of style, is it really that bad for us? It seems like I had only heard conflicting reviews of my go-to taste bud charmer, so I wanted to sit the jury down myself and get a verdict once and for all.
Meet Theobroma cacao, chocolate from the tree, in its purest form. Theobroma is Greek for “food of the gods”, and they weren’t lying. What is in this devilish dessert that makes it so heavenly? Chocolate contains a small amount of caffeine but also theobromine, a stimulant closely related to caffeine, that effects us as a mild stimulant, a diuretic, and a muscle relaxant for the bronchi in the lungs. This magic alkaloid also dilates blood vessels and so can be found in medicines prescribed to treat high blood pressure. Add up the stimulation of caffeine, sugar, and theobromine and that explains the get up and go you feel when you eat a chocolate bar.
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