Chocolate is made from cocoa beans. It comes from the cocoa tree - Theobroma - which translates to
'Food of the Gods'. Chocolates contain many of the same
healthy compounds from plants including minerals
(copper, iron, zinc and magnesium) and specifically an antioxidant called polyphenols.
A recent study looked at
why people crave chocolate and concluded that people do not become addicted to chocolate. Rather, the study found that
people desire chocolate because they
enjoy the sensation of eating it!
Chocolate contains high level of phenylethylamine, a naturally occurring chemical in the brain that
promotes feelings of rapture, associated with being in love.
For hard-core chocolate lovers, this is a reprieve!
Chocolate doesn't cause acne. This is just another myth about chocolate that has been disproved by doctors for some time.
French doctors prescribed chocolate to women patients for a broken heart. Scientifically, chocolate is known to have anti-depressant qualities, which is linked to the small quantity of serotonin found in chocolates. Serotonin is a substance, which is found naturally in the brain and affects our mood.
In Alfred Hitchcock's black and white movie, Psycho (1950), Chocolate syrup was used to represent blood in the famous 45 seconds shower scene, which took 7 days to shoot!
