In the spring of 2004, a woman walked into Woolworth with a yearning for chocolate and walked out with 10,000 Mars bars. In April of the same year, a man in the throes of a late-night craving shot a sales clerk who would not exchange his expired bag of chocolates. One month later, a small town’s police department started handing out chocolate bars to late-night bar-goers as a new “weapon for deterring drunks” from violent outbreaks. Throughout the USA, Chocolate Lovers’ Weekend packages – replete with chocolate spa treatments and tastings – entice consumers. The Hotel Hershey has even opened a special spa where men and women can have their dreams fulfilled – to be covered from head to toe in melted chocolate with treatments such as whipped cocoa baths, chocolate hydrotherapy, chocolate bean polishes, and chocolate fondue wraps.
Surprising? Yes and no. The taste and aroma of chocolate can tempt even the most disciplined among us. But, why do we feel such a passion for chocolate? What makes chocolate so seductive? The simple answer is that it tastes great and makes us feel good. But, what is it in chocolate that makes us feel so good, that drives us to crave and in some cases become addicted?
Chocolate has always been considered unique among foods. From its historical use as a sacred substance up to its prominence today as the food of romance, celebration, and indulgence, it has always held a special place in society. We do not classify chocolate as part of any of the four basic plant groups of food (whole grains, vegetables, fruit, and legumes). Nor do we call it a drug. But curiously, chocolate has properties of both. Ask chocolate lovers to define chocolate, however, and they will describe it as “the love drug,” “the eighth wonder,”“the food of the gods,” “a wicked pleasure,” and “the secret drug of happiness.”
The combined psychological and pharmacological effects of chocolate have been a topic of increasing interest among nutritional scientists who are now localizing in the body and brain the sites where chocolate acts, and identifying the precise compounds involved.
Chocolate’s unique characteristics, including its sensory properties, pharmacologically active compounds, and drug-like effects on the brain and behaviour have been studied extensively. However, the exact reason for the unique magnetism of chocolate, particularly among women, has not yet been established. The sensory reward of chocolate, shaped by its pharmacological properties and cognitive effects, is an exceptionally potent force and appears to be the predominant factor contributing to chocolate’s noble status. It is becoming clear, however, that chocolate is not just a delicious food that represents romance, love, and celebration. Rather, chocolate is a cocktail of pharmacological agents hidden within a sweet, velvety, and, to many if not all, irresistible dessert that has the potential to induce drug-like effects on the body and the mind.
Lotus chocolates use state-of-the-art machinery and supreme quality cocoa to produce their world renowned chocolate products. Now in fact there are many customers from abroad order large gift packs from Lotus Chocolates. Lotus chocolates provides for all your chocolate cravings, and after what we have learnt lately about chocolates, who can resist?
Log onto: http://www.lotuschocolate.com/ and indulge yourself.
