If you are a human,
and you have a tongue,
you have no doubt eaten and enjoyed and possibly become obsessed with chocolate.
Some people can't get enough of it, others claim it has aphrodisiac properties.
And yet this delicious confection can kill your dog without mercy.
So, before you unwrap that truffle, why not
get the facts about humanity's favorite sweet.
First, let's get our terms straight. What's the difference between chocolate,
cocoa, and the ingredient you see on a lot of chocolate wrappers these days:
cacao.
They are all products of the same plant native to Central and South America
Theobroma cacao.
Since at least the heyday of the Olmec culture in Mexico
3,000 years ago, and too much the rest of the world since then,
the fruit of that plant is, and has always been known as cacao.
But it seems that English speakers
long ago swapped around some of the vowels and started calling it Coco.
because that's just how we do. And for a very long time
both words referred to the same specific thing: the powder made from the dried,
fermented fruit of the cacao tree. These days though
foodies will tell you that the terms can describe cacao extract that's processed
in slightly different ways. Stuff labeled as cacao generally has had the fat and
the fruit, known as cocoa butter, removed by pressing it cold. Where as Cocoa is
usually heated to get the fat out. Chocolate, meanwhile, is just food made
from this cacao or cocoa but with a whole bunch of sugar milk fat added to it.
By the way there's also coca, which has nothing to do with cacao or chocolate.
Coca is a product of the coca plant, also from South America, whose leaves yield a
mild stimulant when chewed or drunk as a tea. So trust me
Milky Ways, Zagnuts, the things you get in the Halloween candies... no cocaine.
But the confusion between these two plants may stem from the fact that cacao is its own
kind of natural stimulant.
While some studies have suggested that cacao contains chemicals that can
imitate our feel-good neurotransmitters, its main active ingredient is
Theobromine, which is very similar to caffeine. It's also found in tea and kola nuts.
But instead of giving you that hyper "let's have a push-up contest" kind
of rush, it creates more alertness or sharpness of mind.
The kind that comes in handy when you're you know aligning giant stone monuments
with the equinoxes or something. But Theobromine also functions as a
Vasodilator, a chemical that causes blood vessels to relax and blood to move more freely.
This can not only help arouse the brain and ease the heart, it also can
have a distinctly Viagra-like effect on some men. Which may be the origin of
chocolates reputation as an aphrodisiac.
But as with all stimulus, Theobromine has its downsides. It can be a powerful
diuretic, and, even though it's not nearly as strong as caffeine, large amounts can
cause effect similar to those of caffeine overdose like:
anxiety, headaches, and nausea.
In fact, some Mesoamerican
cultures used cacao to make a kind of ceremonial brew to induce vomiting.
And many Mississippian cultures in the American South used cacao's cousin, a holly
called Ilex Vomitoria to mix up a similar drink for ritual barfing.
Speaking of barfing,
it is true that chocolate is highly toxic to dogs. Not because it's poisonous
in itself, but because it takes dogs much longer to metabolize Theobronine.
While we might feel chocolate's buzz for at least a half an hour or so,
it can linger and accumulate in a dog's system for a day, or even more, causing an
overdose with vomiting, diarrhea, even seizures, and possible organ failure.
The problem is actually worse for cats, but they rarely get poisoned because they can't
taste sweetness so they aren't all that into chocolate. Poor kitties, they can't
taste sweetness. But it's good though that they're not dying.
Good and bad. It's a balance. And while there's some anecdotal evidence of
people becoming addicted to chocolate, it's hard to isolate the true source of
the craving; whether it's the Theobromine or the fat and sugar and other stuff
that have been found to fuel a broader food addictions. Me, I'm just gonna
stick to my milano cookies. Just one or two a day.
This one has peppermint on it.
Thank you for watching this tasty Scishow dose, and thanks especially to
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