Your Brain On Chocolate

all right here's what everyone knows about chocolate milk chocolate tastes the best dark chocolate is okay orange chocolate is disgusting m m's don't need anything in them they're fine how they are and chocolate covered pretzels are far and away better than chocolate covered strawberries now here's what everyone doesn't know about chocolate chocolate contains several different compounds that cause the same effects on the body as coffee marijuana and amphetamines this is because the plant that chocolate is extracted from the cocoa plant or theobroma cacao is a tropical plant some tropical plants evolve to produce compounds called alkaloids either for self-defense or competition alkaloids are organic compounds that contain one or more nitrogen atoms and some have pharmacological effects on the human body the most known and benign alkaloid in chocolate is caffeine but this isn't a big deal because caffeine is found in nearly everything we drink soda coffee and tea everybody drinks it and you know what everyone else does too surf the internet unprotected but you can be different by using nordvpn right now your isp is logging your browsing activity they can see all the different kinds of chocolate you're searching for after watching this video afterwards they can sell that data to advertisers who then post chocolate ads everywhere you browse chocolate chocolate chocolate chocolate chocolate chocolate chocolate keep your chocolate search history private by using nordvpn nord not only keeps you safe from hackers by concealing your ip address through remote servers but also encrypts your data so it can't be logged sure you could use free vpns but at a cost slower connection speeds and higher traffic also those free vpns aren't really free they have to make a profit too some actually log your browsing history and then sell it to advertisers for profit and then this happens however nord is a paid for vpn service so you pay for faster speeds and nord has a strict no logging user activity policy so your browsing is truly private nordvpn is offering 73 off a two-year plan plus four additional months for free for only three dollars and eighteen cents per month check the description for more details the way caffeine works in making you awake is by blocking adenosine receptors in your nervous system normally when adenosine binds to the adenosine receptors it inhibits neuronal activity making neurons fire at a slower speed thus making you feel tired when you drink coffee tea or soda or eat chocolate caffeine binds to the adenosine receptors blocking adenosine altogether thereby preventing you from feeling tired making you feel awake and alert but here's the thing chocolate only has trace amounts of caffeine about 0.24 by weight so one ounce of dark chocolate would only have about 12 milligrams of caffeine less than half a cup of green tea the predominant stimulant in chocolate is not caffeine but rather is theobromine yeah i know they look nearly identical especially if you don't study chemistry but there is a difference i can assure you for example there is a hydrogen atom bound to this nitrogen atom on theobromine right here whereas caffeine there is no hydrogen atom bound there at all and this does matter theobromine is an alkaloid and is also a stimulant causing a feeling of wakefulness by blocking the same receptors as caffeine oh and it's also the substance that makes chocolate toxic to dogs due to very high concentrations on average there's about 300 milligrams of theobromine per 1 ounce of chocolate 25 times more than caffeine compared to caffeine theobromine is a mild stimulant it's slower acting and has a longer duration whereas caffeine is fast acting and has a much shorter duration despite there being a lot of theobromine and chocolate it doesn't make you jittery and hyper but can chocolate make you jittery and hyper yes if you eat enough of it but there's not enough caffeine in it and theobromine is just a mild stimulant so what does it our third alkaloid phenylethylamine this is phenylethylamine and this is amphetamine they're very very similar in structure and this is a big deal amphetamine is very similar in structure to methamphetamine or more simply meth which as you know from watching breaking bad is a very strong nervous system stimulant by nature this makes amphetamine a nervous system stimulant as well though not as strong as methamphetamine and by nature of similarity and structure makes phenylethylamine a nervous system stimulant as well which again is in chocolate the same stuff that your kids eat at halloween and easter in fact phenylethylamine activates the exact same receptors in the nervous system as amphetamine causing the release of dopamine and norepinephrine in the body the release of dopamine gives you a feeling of happiness while norepinephrine makes you feel jittery and aware by increasing heart rate in raising blood sugar levels but chocolate is not exclusively a stimulant like cocaine aside from these alkaloids there's also cannabinoids in chocolate the same compounds found in marijuana the most significant being anatomide anatomide binds to the same cb1 and cb2 receptors as thc and induces a similar high effect on the brain making you feel relaxed and blissful though anatomide binds to the same receptors as thc and does induce a very similar effect its effects are only slightly potent this is because the body makes a very small amount of its own anatomies and recycles it using the enzyme fatty acid amide hydrolase or faah for short which breaks down anatomide into arachidonic acid and ethanolamine disabling its activity thereby making any high effects of external anatomic use very short-lived so you can't really get high by eating chocolate but you can feel relaxed and blissful thc on the other hand lasts much longer in the body so its effects are longer lasting and more noticeable now all chocolate contains these different compounds but the caveat is not all chocolate has the same amount the more concentrated the chocolate the more alkaloids and cannabinoids it has the question is which chocolate is the most concentrated and thereby has the most compounds well let's see first up is white chocolate well this isn't even really chocolate moving on second is milk chocolate ah yes the chocolate that's literally in everything we eat hershey's bars reese's m ms snickers kitkats even the salad chocolate you eat at easter yes milk chocolate is mostly not chocolate that's right you heard me it's not chocolate okay you've been lied to the moon landing was fake water isn't really blue the earth is flat oswald was the lone shooter the walking dead should end it at season ten okay your life is a lie okay maybe i'm getting a little far ahead of myself here but seriously milk chocolate is only about 12 real chocolate or cocoa mass by weight here's a visual of the amount of ingredients in a real 1.5 ounce milk chocolate bar this little bit here is the chocolate that's added to it the other 88 in order of amount is forty eight point six percent sugar twenty percent milk salads nineteen percent butter and zero point four percent less of thin and flavoring when you eat milk chocolate you're essentially eating a mixture of sugar milk and butter which is why you hardly feel the effects of these compounds on the other hand dark chocolate is much different it's on average 60 percent real chocolate with the remaining difference being sugar lecithin and flavoring however it can go up to concentrations as high as 85 sometimes 90 and by far has substantially higher concentrations of these compounds for example a 50 gram milk chocolate candy bar only contains about 9 milligrams of caffeine and 56 milligrams of theobromine very small quantities in contrast a 50 gram ecuadorian dark chocolate bar at 75 cacao contains 75 milligrams of caffeine and 426 milligrams of theobromine the dark chocolate bar has an equivalent of three quarters of a cup of coffee and seven times the amount of theobromine wow not to mention higher levels of phenylethylamine and anatomide but the highest concentration of chocolate that you can find that's edible is baking chocolate which is 100 pure cocoa mass so if after the video you want to experience the effects of chocolate that's the best way to go but be forewarned it tastes terrible there's no sugar butter or milk in it so it's very bitter oh and don't worry about overdosing it's nearly impossible the most toxic and substantial alkaloid in chocolate is theobromine and if you eat enough of it it can kill you but the question is how much is lethal well for a 165 pound person they would have to ingest over 75 000 milligrams of theobromine or 250 pounds of chocolate so you'll likely either throw up or be in a diabetic coma before you die in conclusion chocolate has a range of stimulants and cannabinoids that are also found in coffee marijuana and amphetamines the overall effect of these compounds depending on how much you consume result in wakefulness feeling alert and happy or content the higher the concentration of chocolate or cocoa mass the more stimulants and cannabinoids you consume milk chocolate has trace amounts dark chocolate has substantially more and baking chocolate has the most so yeah that's the video thanks for watching you

Channel: Dark Science

Views: 247,569

Keywords: questions for science, chocolate, dark chocolate, does chocolate contain caffeine, how much caffeine is in chocolate, can you overdose on chocolate, thc in chocolate, anandamide in chocolate, is there cannabinoids in chocolate, cannabinoids, dark chocolate vs milk chocolate, is dark chocolate better for you, why is dark chocolate better for you, chocolate overdose, cacoa, cocoa seeds, how much chocolate is dangerous, chocolate health, chocolate health benefits, chocolate recipes

Id: ZUL94lDyapE

Length: 9min 10sec (550 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 13 2021