Valentine's Day is this Sunday...and as tradition has it, flowers are among the most popular gifts, but chocolate candy and its chemical properties help spread the love.
If you like giving and receiving chocolate on Valentine's Day...consuming it could bring more of a chemical reaction to the central nervous system and one reason why we crave the delectable sugary sweets.
Chemists say naturally occurring components and molecules in chocolate have psychoactive properties that give us euphoria or a feel-good feeling.
“One of them is Theobromine, which is a small molecule that comes from the Greek …meaning food of the gods... and it's similar to the structure of caffeine. So it’s a mild stimulant that increases our heart rate and respiration."
Providence College Associate Professor of Chemistry Seann Mulcahey says other molecules in chocolate trigger reward pathways in our brain.
Mulcahey says,” consuming chocolate causes a release of a molecule in the brain called dopamine and he says dopamine sends a small chemical signal that leads to feelings of desire and a pleasure."
And since our brain remembers the euphoria or pleasurable feelings...we naturally like to repeat the process and eat more chocolate, which ultimately leads to sharing it with the people we love.
To Listen to the entire interview with Mulcahey and WGBH producer Marilyn Schairer click on the audio file above.
