Chocolates...

[Aunty Em]

Chocolate is addictive because it produces endorphins in the brain... the body's own natural opiate... and gives you a natural high.

Normally I avoid it like the plague, except the occassional piece, but having pigged out on 3 easter eggs I'm now finding it hard to stop, but the craving will go given time, you just have to find alternatives to replace it...

I prefer not to be a slave to an addiction...

 

[HeXp£Øi±]

and gives you a natural high.

Is that what you've been telling yourself to make yourself think it's ok to eat all those chocolates Aunty? A natural high would be without the chocolates.

 

[Aunty Em]

No, it's a "natural" high because your own body produces it. It's a simlar effect to that which you get from vigorous excercise when endorphins are released by the brain... the substance is called seretonin. If you have too little of it you become depressed and if you have too much you get manic. It's the chemical imbalance in the brain that causes manic depression which they use anti-depressants to correct.

 

[MuFu]

She's right. Sex is good too (not just in general - I mean for an endorphin rush). Too much serotonin makes you go hyper/schitzo though - plus it causes insomnia because your body can't convert enough of it into melatonin to make you go to sleep.

Not that the only cause of manic depression is low serotonin levels, of course. The number of people who I've heard say, "I have low *insert name of peptide here* levels and that's why I am depressed" like they have some kind of inherent genetic disorder, is worrying. The psychological aspect is still the main contributor by far, not that I rule ou the possibility that there may be an inherent metabolism problem in certain cases.

So the moral of the stroy is - chocolate makes you go crazy and stay up till 3am in the morning (sound familiar anybody?).

 

[greenfreak]

I didn't have any chocolate Sunday but some people brought in leftover easter candy/chocolate... And I spied the Reeses' peanut butter eggs... Picture a peanut butter cup but bigger and thicker. I had three of them.

oh and a couple of Whoppers (malted milk covered with chocolate)

 

[tommyj27]

i like reeses pieces more than their bigger brothers, it gets to be too much funky tasting peanut butter for me. reeses used to sell peanut butter too (maybe they still do), it tasted nothing like what they put in the candy

 

[Squiggy]

I get crazy over good buttercremes....

 

[Mirlyn]

chocolate covered rasins, peanuts and strawberries.....my my my

* wipes chin

 

[Shadowfax]

chocolate from geneva kicks serious ass...get it at some warehouse in the center of the city..forgot the name
got it all the times i was there...and DAMN..never had such good chocolate

 

[greenfreak]

I get crazy over good buttercremes....

I like them too but the only ones I've had is from Whitman's samplers. Not the best quality around. What's a good kind?

 

[Aunty Em]

So the moral of the stroy is - chocolate makes you go crazy and stay up till 3am in the morning (sound familiar anybody?).

Yep, I can't get Katie to go to bed, it's nearly 11 and she's still up. Last night I had to turn off the TV and get changed for bed before she got the message... correction... this morning at 1 am... she's driving me nuts!

 

[HeXp£Øi±]

No, it's a "natural" high because your own body produces it. It's a simlar effect to that which you get from vigorous excercise when endorphins are released by the brain... the substance is called seretonin. If you have too little of it you become depressed and if you have too much you get manic. It's the chemical imbalance in the brain that causes manic depression which they use anti-depressants to correct.

Yet if you have consistant heavy intake of chocolate your body will stop producing seretonin since it's getting plenty from the chocolate itself. This after an extended period of time would actually cause depression if you were to stop the chocolate intake because your body would no longer be getting the seretonin levels that it's accustomed to. Simply because the chemical is identical to those your body produces does not mean it's natural imo.