The following article describes a study on what happens when we eat chocolate. Please answer the following questions so as never to feel guilty again at Christmas or Easter...
What's so special about chocolate? It seems that chocolate, like coffee and tea, has an unusual capacity to interact with brain chemistry. For example, Adam Drewnowski of the University of Michigan found that chemically blocking receptors for opiate chemicals produced by the brain decreased the consumption of high-fat chocolates by compulsive eaters by more than half. (The same "opioid" chemical only slightly reduced consumption of women with normal eating patterns.)
But Drewnowski, who directs the Human Nutrition Program in Ann Arbor, says, " the experiment could not prove that the sugar and fat consumed during the test were not causing the response."
As Drewnowski interprets it, chocolate (or sugar or fat) normally triggers the production of opioids, and when the molecules that recognize opioids are blocked by the test treatment, the craving seems to decline greatly. Most peculiarly, they dropped most sharply in women who have a binge-eating problem. That implicated the receptors -- somehow -- in the causation of their problem.
Chocolate also seems to interfere with another internal chemical signal, says Danielle Piomelli, a researcher into the chemical effects of marijuana at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego. She has found that chocolate slows the destruction of chemicals that activate marijuana's receptor in the brain.
If he's right, that means that chocolate could preserve a marijuana "high". But even more interesting is how chocolate seems to interfere with a pleasant brain chemical your brain can make without a hint of illegal drugs.
About three years ago, scientists announced the surprising news that brain cells have a receptor for THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. The receptor is part of a signaling network, like the modem on your computer, except it only carries one simple signal : when THC binds to the receptor, Piomelli explains, we feel "high". It turns out that the brain produces a chemical that also binds to the receptor that produces effects similar to those of THC, Piomelli explains. "Everything feels better, your perception of time changes -- five minutes can feel like an hour. It's a pain killer in experimental animals." The natural chemical is called anandamide, and Piomelli says it's a "reasonable speculation" that it may play a role in feelings of euphoria.
That's the good part. The bad part is that anandamide, like other neurotransmitters, is broken down soon after it's produced.
At any rate, Piomelli's recent experiments indicate that two chemicals in chocolate inhibit the natural breakdown of anandamide. In other words, chocolate could preserve a natural "high" brought on by whatever caused the release of anandamide in the first place.
And while Piomelli says his interest is basic research, the implications for drug development are obvious. "In principle, the idea of interfering with the brain's own substances, as opposed to giving something from outside, may be superior." A disease like depression, he speculates, could be caused by too-quick breakdown of euphoria-causing natural chemicals like anandamide, and thus conceivably could be treated by slowing that breakdown with a drug.