Chocolate Fantasies

Dark chocolate, white chocolate, milk chocolate, chocolate covered cherries, chocolate with mint, almonds, coconut, peanuts, Hershey's, Lindt, Gheradelli's, Godiva.

However you prefer your chocolate, chances are that you have some pretty strong feelings about it. Some women go as far as to claim to prefer a good chocolate fix over sex. (I wouldn't go that far, but maybe I'm getting my chocolate in the wrong places.)

There are many different facets of chocolate indulgence that your average post-modern slut can find so incredibly appealing.

First are the societal forces. Chocolate, and sweets in general are seen as a reward: for a job well done, for being a good lover or whatever the situation. Chocolate is often the default offering to ingratiate yourself to any lady. Buying chocolate for yourself can therefore be taken as being self-indulgent. When was the last time that you bought a present for yourself? It seems deliciously sinful, doesn't it? That's part of the psychological appeal of expensive chocolate candy.

But aside from these psychological and societal aspects of a good chocolate fix, there are some physiological ones as well.

Chocolate contains so many psychoactive chemicals that it could well be classified as a mind-altering drug. Most obvious of these is caffeine, and another caffeine like substance called theobromine. It also contains something called phenylethylamine. This chemical has been called the "love chemical", because it simulates those general feelings of well being and extreme satisfaction that we call "being in love."

OK, so far we have the chocolate as a drug mimicking the feeling of being in love, after drinking a strong espresso. Sounds good to me. But there is more.

Research has linked other chemicals in chocolate to enhanced serotonin and endorphin production. Endorphins are chemicals produced in the brain that make us feel great. (Endorphins are produced during and after strenuous exercise they are responsible for the "runners high.")

Serotonin is the really important chemical here, though. Serotonin is a chemical produced in the brain that is deficient in many people with depressive disorders. Many anti-depressives work by boosting serotonin production. What is most interesting here, though, is the fact that serotonin production in women decreases steadily from ovulation through the next 2 weeks until the first day of bleeding. Many doctors believe that this accounts, in part, for pre-menstrual depression. Since serotonin production is at its absolute lowest in women right before bleeding, depression can set it. It's at this point that we crave foods that enhance serotonin production. (Um, could this be chocolate, by chance?)

But regardless of the scientific explanations of why chocolate can make us feel so good, the point is that it does.

I don't need medical research to tell me that when something FEELS good, it IS good! And when we come to believe that a huge dose of chocolate will make us feel better, it certainly will. So, for future reference, I am a compete whore for dark, bittersweet chocolate. Those little chocolate hearts from Godiva will cure all that ails me, and I don't feel a bit guilty about craving them!