My official entry into science teacher geekdom...and all you ever wanted to know about chocolate

Gaze in wonder at two of the items I picked up over the past 2 days at the STAO conference. (STAO is the Science Teacher's Association of Ontario, and I was required to go to this conference as part of my teacher's college program.) These are not the only items I picked up from the conference (and I picked up a whole host of ideas besides the physical things I picked up), but they are the ones I'm going to focus on today.

So let's talk about the mug.
I purchased the mug for $8. There were also mugs depicting caffeine (some with one of those negatory circle-with-a-line-through-it symbols superimposed on it, with "Decaf" written above it), but since I'm not a coffee drinker and am instead hopelessly addicted to chocolate I thought this was more appropriate for me.

The molecule depicted on the mug is theobromine. If you break it down to its roots, "theobromine" means "food of the gods." (You may or may not notice that there is no bromine in the molecule...the "bromine" part of the name comes from the Greek word for food, broma.) Theobromine is what I call "the active ingredient in chocolate" and I've known about it for a few years now. Wikipedia tells me that "it is a mild, lasting stimulant with a mood improving effect" and "is one of the causes for chocolate's mood-elevating effects." Did you say chocolate? Bring it on! Oh, remember that "food of the gods" thing? Well, another source tells me that "In Aztec society chocolate was ... reserved for priests, warriors and nobility," and the version of hot chocolate that they had (which was bitter, unlike our hot chocolate) "was a sacred concoction that was associated with fertility and wisdom ... [and] was also thought to have stimulating and restorative properties." The presence of theobromine in chocolate is also why chocolate is poisonous to dogs and cats, who metabolize it much more slowly than we do. It has its downsides, but not many...you can read about them (and more about theobromine) in the Wikipedia article here if you're concerned.

By the way, you may have heard of the idea that eating chocolate releases the same chemical in the brain as orgasm. Well, I've just done a quick survey of some information available on the web (thankfully, Googling "chcolate orgasm chemical" does not immediately yield the gross kinds of sites I thought it might) and it seems theobromine is not the chemical responsible for this idea. There is apparently a whole host of theories out there as to why chocolate is craved by and produces pleasure in people. Here are some (see list of sources at the end of this post):

• It's chemical:
  
• chocolate is like marijuana (has to do with anandamide)
• chocolate is like sex (has to do partly with phenylethylamine...which is also found in roses! Incidentally, while doing this "research" I came across these chocolates which are supposed to contain a high level of phenylethylamine and guarantee orgasm...yikes! Scroll down past the ads if you want to read that entry on someone's blog.)
• chocolate gives you good feelings such as those like you have when you're in love (involves tryptophan leading to production of more serotonin)
• chocolate takes good feelings you already have and keeps them around longer (thank you, N-oleoythanolamine and N-linoleoylethanolamine)
• chocolate otherwise chemically produces/maintains good feelings (hooray, bioactive agents that interact with many of the processes already mentioned plus act as stimulants and lead to the release of dopamine! Hooray also for endorphins!)
• chocolate cures deficiencies: "women crave chocolate prior to menstruation because it contains high levels of magnesium. Women experience magnesium deficiency prior to menstruation," and this deficiency "can exacerbate pre-menstrual tension," so they eat chocolate to make the problem go away. "Similar cravings during pregnancy could indicate mild anaemia, which chocolate's iron content may help to cure."
• It's psychological, since the chemicals involved are present in quantities that are too low to make an impact or are destroyed by various digestive/etc. processes before they could reach the brain (e.g., one source claims that "you would have to eat 25lbs of dark chocolate at once to [produce enough serotonin to] achieve the same effect" as getting "'stoned'" on marijuana):
• the "aroma, texture, sweetness and psychological associations [people have] with chocolate" are more responsible than chemical factors
• "women crave chocolate because they have turned it into a nutritional taboo ... because it's loaded with fat and calories"
• It's both chemical and psychological:
  
• "chocolate's sensory qualities, chemicals, cultural values, social values and hormonal influences all play a role in chocolate cravings. It is the complete chocolate bar that people crave. Not one single chemical or quality can be solely responsible for satisfying a chocolate craving."

There does seem to be some confusion in the information I've seen on the 'net so far on this subject...e.g., one article will say that "bioactive agents" in chocolate lead to the release of dopamine in your brain, whereas others will say it's the phenylethylamine that accomplishes both. Maybe both do, maybe one source has it wrong, who knows. I'm not interested enough to go check the literature ;).

Oh, there is also mention in my sources of ways in which chocolate is good for you. One source even claims that "even the saturated fat in cocoa, stearic acid, appears to be benign and unsaturated-like in its effects on our vascular system, so it doesn't contribute to atherosclerosis, as far as is known." Of course, there is also mention of ways in which overindulging in chocolate is bad for you. Lalalalala...not listening! Let's move on.

Okay, what about the other item in the photograph?
The other item in the photograph is one that I obtained for free from a booth the Ontario Science Centre (OSC) had set up at the conference. I wasn't originally going to go to the OSC's booth, but when I saw that other people from my program had this item, and heard that they had obtained it from the OSC booth, I had to go and get one...and when I told others in my program that I was on my way to get one, they immediately jumped on the bandwagon and ran to go get one, too. Mad props to the first blog-reader here who can post a comment telling the others what this item is...if no one guesses correctly by the end of, oh, let's say Wednesday, I'll post the answer.

Maybe I'll tell you about the fire-breather I saw, too.

Man, I love a good science conference :).

Some sources:

1. Wikipedia article on theobromine
2. Excellent BBC article on "The Science of Chocolate"...follow the links in it to see all the parts
3. "Is Chocolate Physiologically or Psychologically Addictive?" - a student paper was written for a course at Bryn Mawr College
4. Women & Chocolate
5. "Can chocolate affect your sex life?"
6. Article on theobromine at chemistry.about.com
7. "Chocolate: more than an obsession - recipe"