Chocolate, love and myth-information
The pairing of love and chocolate goes back centuries, and the love of chocolate is a consuming passion, especially on Valentine’s Day.
The Theory of Phenylethylamine
Why is this derivative of the cacao bean so universally loved and so linked with love? In 1981, two New York psychopharmacologists, Donald Klein and Michael Liebowitz, offered a theory. They were studying the chemistry of love at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and hypothesized that the rush that comes with passionate love is caused by a surge of an amphetamine-like brain chemical called phenylethylamine. The “in love” brain produces this intoxicating substance which induces feelings similar to amphetamine highs. Chocolate contains phenylethylamine. People crave chocolate, Drs. Klein and Liebowitz suggested, because it gives them the same high as being in love.
The pair of researchers made this connection while treating a group of love-addicted women who suffered post-passion crashes, during which they consumed large amounts of chocolate. When we fall out of love, the scientists found, PEA production shuts down. The theory was that the chocolate binges among spurned lovers were an attempt to replenish Phenylethylamine.
This was an intriguing theory and was widely quoted in the popular press. Jane Brody wrote about it in her column, Personal Health, in the New York Times, Nov. 10, 1982, and Newsweek referred to it in an article on chocolate in its April 4, 1983 issue.
It was a theory that seemed to be substantiated by the history of chocolate, which originated with the Aztecs. According to historical accounts, the Aztec Emperor Montezuma made chocolate a part of his regular visits to his harem, and the Spanish nobility, who were introduced to it by Columbus, believed chocolate to be an aphrodisiac.
A modern scientific study also seemed to bear out the observation of Drs. Klein and Liebowitz. Psychologist Marjorie Schuman compared a group of self-proclaimed chocoholics (recruited at a chocolate convention) with a randomly selected control group. The chocoholics did share some traits with “hysteroid dysphorics” – “clinically depressed patients, usually women, who spend inordinate amounts of time searching for romantic attention and approval, suffer repeated episodes of depression due to rejection, and when depressed, overeat and crave sweets.” (American Health, June 1988). But Dr. Schuman rejected the idea that chocolate physiologically helped the women feel better. Whether it’s alcohol or double fudge, people use indulgences to excess,” she said, “to cope with certain painful emotions.”
The Refutation of the Theory
Subsequent research proved the “charming” theory of chocolate and PEA unlikely (Discover magazine, September 1988). PEA is so quickly metabolized that it doesn’t even reach the bloodstream, much less the brain. And the amount of PEA in chocolate is extremely small; there’s 25 times as much PEA in a wedge of cheddar cheese as in an equivalent amount of chocolate, and even more in smoked salami, hardly the fare of candle-light dinners.
Said Dr. Klein, one of the originators of the theory, “Certain drugs which regulate PEA are especially good for people who don’t respond to conventional antidepressantsWe were looking into the mechanism of how those drugs help such people. The chocolate part was an inference, really, a sidelineIt was purely speculative.”
But this speculation is what got the press because it made a good story. Evidence to the contrary did not get the same attention. And people who had heard the theory never heard the conflicting arguments refuting it. That’s how nutritional myths are born. In fact, as recently as February 2003 there was an article in First Magazine about foods that boost mood. Among them was chocolate because: “Consuming the phenylethylamine (PEA) in a morsel of chocolate stimulates the nervous system, increases alertness and produces those head-over-heals-happy feelings we get when we fall in love.”
The story of chocolate and PEA is one illustration among many of how myths about health develop. There are many other examples of such nutritional myth-information: Margarine is a health food; the way to lose weight is to go on a diet; hormone replacement therapy is a safe treatment for the prevention of bone loss; the only adequate source of calcium is dairy; if your cholesterol is low, you won’t have a heart attack. None of these is true. And chocolate is no more likely to produce the high of being in love than is salami.
Mary Lou Williams, M. Ed., is a lecturer and writer in the field of nutrition. She welcomes inquiries. She can be reached at 267-6480.