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Chocolate is not Addictive!

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Chocolate is not Addictive!
Barr
07/12/02 at 02:21:18
Assalamu'alaikum :)

Do I hear a sign/ sigh of relief? ;)

Scroll down and reap on the good news, fellow... chocoho... I mean... lovers :)


[color=blue]Chocolate is not addictive [/color]
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/women/story/0,1870,46867,00.html?

Chocoholics, take heart. While you might consider chocolate to be one of your greatest weaknesses or a powerfully tantalising habit, you are not considered to have a serious or harmful addiction.

 
Although you may start drooling at the sight or thought of chocolate, and can never resist if someone offers you a piece, this is not as serious as you may think because chocolate is not an addictive substance.


In fact, some British researchers have even poured scorn on the use of words such as 'chocoholic' and 'chocoholism' because of the addiction implied by the terms and the self-shame they cause.

While several international studies have pointed to brain changes from chocolate consumption, there is no evidence that cocoa is addictive.

Professor John Stein from the Physiology Department of Oxford University said no matter how much chocolate one eats, people are never at risk of being addicted to it.

'Although cocoa contains many drugs, no single one of them is present in particularly high concentrations,' he said.

'The combination may have an effect, but it is subtle, which is why people cannot be addicted to chocolate.'

[u]What is a chocoholic? [/u]

The word 'chocoholic' stems from a mixing of the words 'chocolate' and 'alcoholic'.

The Oxford English Dictionary describes a 'chocoholic' as 'a person who is addicted to or very fond of chocolate'.


Prof Stein notes that while caffeine addiction is possible, one never hears of coffee-lovers being described as 'coffeholics'.

He said the term 'addiction' did not fit even the most serious chocofiends and that they risked no real physiological dependence even if they over-indulged themselves.

While the tag 'chocoholic' is used in a mischievous and mocking way by some people to describe their love of chocolate, others load it with feelings of guilt and fear that they are hooked on the 'sinful' substance.

British magazine Chocolate - the chocolate lovers' equivalent of a fashion bible - is also against using the word 'chocoholic'.

In its latest issue, it looked into the 'truth behind the name chocoholic' and concluded: 'Calling yourself a chocoholic may do your image more harm than good.

'For a start, you are likely to be depressed or on a parallel with drug addicts.'

So if chocophiles can take the hint, the key is moderation.

And all those guilt- burdened chocoholics might instead consider themselves to be sugarholics and be more concerned for their teeth than an imaginary cocoa addiction.

Re: Chocolate is not Addictive!
mwishka
07/12/02 at 10:36:58
um, sis barr, indulge me, please, on this?  no intention to counter the article, just to clarify some things in it.....                                                              


'Although cocoa contains many drugs, no single one of them is present in particularly high concentrations,' he said.

sigh....he's a physiologist, and we don't even know what KIND of physiologist.....  so he's no kind of source or reference point without any more information than that.     (and he said "drugs", which is a pharmaceutical term for a manufactured product....)   i know these people are biologists, generally, but i hope that this one, if he's even commenting on such a study or result, is also a biochemist, or incoporates a knowledge of biochemistry into his work....OR is heavily into collaboration.  if you want to know if someone is reliable as a "reference" for information, check out their research, don't let any sort of label as any "kind" of researcher lead you to think "oh he's a scientist, he knows what he's talking about".  i mean, what if that's a misprint, and he's........a physicist??  hee heeee  maybe even...a particle physicist?  would we still think he knows what he's talking about?  ok ok, he might even then, if his side research is into addiction or something....but i think you can see what i mean.

with that caution, i don't have any dispute with this "finding" except to say that it's frivolous and not worthy of sounding like a "finding", so i hope the newspaper printed this tongue-in-cheek, not meant to be anything more than entertainment.

what does chocolate do?  increases production of endorphins (a type of messenger molecules) in the brain, making you feel "better" or "happier" or whatever the state is perceived as by the individual.  why the question of addiction? what does heroin do?  increases production of endorphins, making you feel "better" or "happier".  so what's the difference?  the level of production.  the effect of heroin is so many times greater on the increase of concentration of these molecules that it becomes physically irresistable in a literal sense, the state called addiction.

(and, by the way, just in case you missed this other little obscured and hidden bit of news from some years back, nicotine is not - though you will repeatedly and consistently read that it is - the overriding addictive compound in tobacco or cigarette smoke.  that honor goes to an aldehyde, which it's just not good press to focus on.  i mean come on --- all those studies and marketing strategies and workshops and businesses centered around nicotine addiction?  no one's going to mess up that little racket.  and nobody knows what an aldehyde is anyway - nevermind that nobody knows what nicotine is or that "chemical" doesn't have a generic definition meaning "harmful substance" either.....BUT, yes, nicotine is addictive --- and also lethal.  organic chemistry lab courses used to always include producing and purifying nicotine as one of the early basic experiments, but, as i'm sure lots of you found as idid , that it's so dangerous that now students usually "make" caffeine (also deadly, but less so) and salicylic acid (aspirin's active ingredient), so the students don't, by their unbelievably often lacking common sense decide to just "touch it real quick!"  this can kill you....)

mwishka-who-doesn't-want-to-be-the-science-police-anymore-because-it's-just-too-discouraging   :(    
                                                               
   
                                                               
07/12/02 at 10:40:02
mwishka
Re: Chocolate is not Addictive!
Dawn
07/12/02 at 16:11:43
[quote author=mwishka link=board=bebzi;num=1026454878;start=0#1 date=07/12/02 at 10:36:58]
mwishka-who-doesn't-want-to-be-the-science-police-anymore-because-it's-just-too-discouraging   :(   [/quote]

NOOOOO, don't say this! :o We need you!  Besides, where else could we get scientific commentary (specifically chemically or biologically oriented scientific commentary, as the above clearly is!) with such a readable and often entertaining spin?  

Dawn (waiting eagerly to hear your take on  [] --  ;))


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