Chocolate is Good For Your Mental Well-Being

By: Teresa Steventon

I have just read an interesting and rather exciting online article concerning chocolate and its benefits. Or to be more precise, I have just discovered one of the main disadvantages of NOT having chocolate in your diet!

If you would like me to send you the link for the full article in question for your further information please get in touch with me. Right now I would just like to share with you one of the most valid points from it, as it has solved something of a mystery for me, personally. I also feel that I can add my own real-life example as appropriate, down the page....

According to the Medical Research Council (situated in London, UK) Scientists at the University of Cambridge suggests that the neurotransmitter serotonin, which acts as a chemical messenger between nerve cells, plays a critical role in regulating emotions such as aggression during social decision-making. So what does all this mean?

First things first. What is serotonin (ser-o-TOE-nin)? According to the definition on The National Pain Foundation, it is: "A brain chemical (neurotransmitter) that helps to regulate your mood. A lack of it may lead to depression."

Where Can you Find Serotonin? Well the best known source of the "feel good" hormone is probably dark chocolate. Certainly when folks feel fed up, they are likely to reach for a chocolate bar - and the reason being that chocolate is known to raise the serotonin level. We accept that serotonin is known as the "feel good" hormone, and we agree that high levels of serotonin can make us feel happy; equally lack of it can make us feel sad. The essential amino acid necessary for the body to create serotonin can only be obtained through diet. Therefore, our serotonin levels naturally decline when we don't eat. This is probably why many of us "comfort eat" when necessary. It is our brain's invitation to produce more serotonin through diet, even though we do not realise it as such at the time.

This new research has additionally found that, rather than just make us feel low if we are lacking in serotonin, more importantly - but presumably if you are susceptible to this kind of reaction only, I wonder? - in certain cases a lack of serotonin will actually make people more aggressive. That's the bit above about "a critical role in regulating emotions such as aggression during social decision-making". Now does that help to explain it a little?

Why this was such a revelation to me, personally, is that my family had "accused" me of becoming not just moody but bordering on aggressive when I once gave up chocolate (not for health reasons I hasten to add, but for personal reasons of my own at that time); it was only ever going to be a temporary abstinence if you must know, because I am indeed a chocoholic and would find it difficult to give up chocolate completely...but that's not the point.

The point is, both my husband and my son independently asked me to start eating chocolate again. For health reasons they said. Theirs, not mine! When I asked them what they meant, they said that I had become "snappy" at the smallest of things, and the awful truth is, I cannot remember that at all.

I started eating chocolate again because they said it was too stressful if I didn't; and they both said I was a "happier" person afterward. Well that's OK because I felt perfectly happy and calm, but for a long time I thought they were just telling me this other stuff as a joke. I decided that they had made a pact to pretend I had acted more aggressively due to my lack of chocolate - but now I guess they were telling the truth!

So the moral of the story here is that Chocolate can have a very beneficial effect, and lack of it can actually be detrimental. But only if you are eating the right sort of chocolate, of course. Too much highly processed, fat and sugar laden chocolate may give you a "temporary high" but it is followed by a low which needs a "fix". It also has other health and weight issues to consider. I am happier now that I have found the perfect dark chocolate: xocai (pronounced show-sigh) which has no added fat or sugar and is actually a Healthy Chocolate ie. it is positively GOOD for you (and it's not just because it tastes nice).

The Real Reasons Women Love Chocolate

By: Antony Gardner

For most women, when they want to eat something to make them feel better, they choose chocolate. Women all over the world think of chocolate as their comfort food. Why do so many women consider it their favorite flavour?

First of all, the chemical phenylethylamine, in chocolate has a good reaction with the human brain. One interaction with the brains chemicals produces a mild antidepressant effect. Nothing major, just a mild feel good reaction. Anadamide is another chemical in chocolate that gives us feelings of calmness, well being and a ìrightness with the world. Neither of these chemicals causes a big change, but both are strong enough to be felt. Xocai chocolate also helps your brain release serotonin which gives you a feeling of pleasure.

Chocolates melting point is just above body temperature. So it melts in your mouth perfectly. This feeling is associated with sensual pleasure. A study found that the melting in your mouth effect results in an increase in the brain activity and an increase in heart rate. These increases are stronger than what a passionate kiss gives you. And they last up to four times longer.

Phenylethylamine has also been shown to bring on the same feelings of happiness and joy as being in love. Chocolate is obviously delicious and now there is an added benefit, Xocai produce fine dark healthy chocolate that is

Shortly before a womans menstrual cycle, blood glucose and serotonin levels drop. Eating Xocai chocolate raises those levels and helps adjust the hormone imbalance. The serotonin that chocolate encourages the brain produce also acts like a sedative.

The author has been a health and wellness researcher for 7 years and has recently provided numerous articles about healthy chocolate. Although healthy chocolate may seem a contradiction in terms Xocai products are proving an exception to the rule and the beneficial information about Xocai healthy chocolate is spreading far and wide, a lot of this is due to the high quality of evidence that is being provided. Xocai is soon to open in the UK so to find out more about this healthy chocolate business visit http://www.Xocai.co.uk