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Chocolate!
It is everywhere. It is associated with nearly every holiday we celebrate in the United States! Actually it is known nearly everywhere in the world! It is Chocolate!
Chocolate candies in heart shaped boxes for Valentine's Day, gourmet chocolates for Mom on Mothers Day, chocolate Bunnies for Easter, chocolate candy bars for Halloween, chocolate chocolate chocolate!
Not that this is a bad thing mind you. And there are some very cool facts about chocolate and that tiny little brown cocoa bean that you may not know!
The tasty secret of the cacao (kah KOW) tree was discovered between 2,000 and 3,000 years ago in the tropical rainforests of the Americas. The pods of this tree contain seeds that were processed into chocolate. The story of how chocolate grew from a local Mesoamerican beverage into a global sweet treat encompasses many cultures and continents.
The first people known to have made chocolate were the ancient cultures of Mexico and Central America. These people, including the Maya and the Aztec, mixed the ground cacao seeds with a variety of seasonings and made it into a spicy, frothy drink.
Later, the Spanish conquistadors brought the seeds back home to Spain, where new recipes were created. Eventually, the popularity of this drink spread quickly throughout Europe. Over the years, new technologies and innovations have changed the texture and taste of chocolate, and it still remains one of the world's most popular flavors.
In the United States, Easter is the second top candy holiday, followed by Halloween. More than 60 million chocolate bunnies were sold for the 2005 Easter holiday, and who knows how many chocolate eggs were hatched! The National Confectioners Association says that more than 13 billion dollars worth of chocolate is sold in the United States per year. Can you imagine how much is sold world wide?
Science is able to explain a little bit of why chocolate is such a popular choice among candy lovers. It has a perfect mix of sugar and fat that turns on almost every appetite triggering nerve chemical in the brain. The sugar in chocolate sparks the release of a nerve chemical called serotonin and might lower another nerve chemical called NPY; the end result is a sense of well being. The sweet taste also releases endorphins in the brain, giving us an immediate euphoric rush. The fat in chocolate enhances the flavor and aroma and satisfies another nerve chemical called galanin, thus curbing our cravings for fat.
Chocolate contains theobromine and caffeine, compounds that provide a mental boost, and phenylethylamine, or PEA, which stimulates the nervous system, increases blood pressure and heart rate, and is suspected to produce similar feelings experienced when a person is "in love." Even the aroma of chocolate can affect the brain chemistry. Chocolate also contains a substance called anandamide that mimics the effects of marijuana and boosts the pleasure you get when you eat chocolate.
Not all of these connections between chocolate and body chemistry have been substantiated by well designed research; consequently, many questions do still remain. For example, cheese and salami also are sources of PEA but they seldom evoke similar cravings. Can you imagin opening a beautifully wrapped box to find a big fat salami and a hunk of cheese? Wait, I guess if you are a guy, that would be the perfect gift!
But the fact remains, the amount of PEA in a chocolate bar is not likely to be enough to trigger romantic feelings. The endorphin chocolate link is based on animal studies; no such studies have been conducted on humans so it is only speculation that people and rats share a similar endorphin rush when eating chocolate.
Not to imply that we are rats or anything of the sort, but we have been conditioned through clever marketing campaigns to associate chocolate with many of our popular holidays and many human emotions. But where did that marketing idea start……perhaps that person was eating a piece of chocolate and pondering his or her lover and the greatest marketing tool ever was born?
Anything is possible, now pass the bon bon's please.
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