Family Name: Sterculiaceae

Introduction

When people think of chocolate, they usually think of the sweet shop and high calorie chocolate bars. It may come as a surprise that chocolate was originally used as a medicine and is still being used as a medicine today.

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Resources

Fact Sheet 1
Fact Sheet 2

Fact Sheet 1

Uses: Depression, Exhaustion, Weight Gain, Poor sex drive

When people think of chocolate, they usually think of the sweet shop and high calorie chocolate bars. It may come as a surprise that chocolate was originally used as a medicine and is still being used as a medicine today.

Native to Central and Latin America, the fruits of the chocolate tree have been used by indigenous people to treat depression, fatigue, weight gain, and poor sex drive for thousands of years. Indeed, when the Europeans first arrived in the Americas looking a little worse for the wear, they were presented with a tonic beverage made out of chocolate beans.

In ancient Latin America, using Chocolate as a medicine was the pleasure of royalty, dignitaries, and high standing members of Aztec society. Considered a highly valuable item, chocolate beans were used as money. Colonial records indicate that when the Spanish explorers arrived, a slave cost 100 chocolate beans and a rabbit cost 6 chocolate beans.

Fascinatingly, high ranking Aztec and Incan officials used chocolate to help them keep up with their demanding posts. They used it as a stress tonic prior to the invention of the word stress! What are symptoms of stress? Exhaustion, depression, weight gain, poor sex drive! Though the Spanish invaders wiped out much of the Aztec and Incan civilisations, Latin Americans still use chocolate beans to undermine the symptoms of stress.

Is using chocolate as a medicine a strange idea? Maybe not. When do people eat chocolate? When they are depressed, frustrated, angry, and irritated. Does it work? If it did not, people in the UK would not consume millions of pounds of chocolate each year! Chocolate works. But what does the scientific community have to say about chocolate. Is there anything to it? Let’s look at its different potential uses, one at a time.

Depression
A lot of people eat chocolate when they are feeling a little blue and it would seem that this is not a bad idea. Chocolate beans contain amino acids, many of which have been shown to have an antidepressant activity. The list of anti-depressant amino acids includes tryptophan, phenylalanine, and tyrosine. Fascinatingly, tryptophan has been shown to increase the body’s production of serotonin. Serotonin is our bodies self produced antidepressant.

Exhaustion
People that are tired all of the time often reach for a chocolate bar, seemingly with good reason. Chocolate has been shown to act as a gentle stimulant. Firstly, it contains the stimulant theobromine, a substance related to caffeine. Research has shown that like caffeine, theobromine stimulates nerve function but it does not have the negative side effects associated with caffeine. Could theobromine make a person jittery? Probably not. Chocolate also contains the relaxant valeric acid and the anti-anxiety compound glutamic acid which counter balances the stimulant effect of theobromine!

Weight Gain
Research has shown that when you eat your brain releases happy chemicals and you feel happier. For this reason some people over eat when they are feeling down. The problem being if you are depressed and you put on weight, you get even more depressed.

Can chocolate help those people who eat to make themselves feel better? Maybe. First of all, it contains a list of anti-depressant compounds that address the fundamental problem with comfort eaters. Beyond this, theobromine, the stimulant found in chocolate, has been determined to act as an “anorexic”. Anorexics are substances that make you less hungry! Chocolate acts as an appetite suppressant and antidepressant all in one. It also contains compounds that speed the metabolism, which means you burn more fat while using it.

Sex
Chocolate has long been used as an aphrodisiac in Latin America. What does a suitor bring a date? A box of chocolates. What does a husband bring a wife when he has been behaving badly? A box of chocolates. Chocolate and love go hand in hand.

Is there anything to this? To begin with, chocolate contains valeric acid, a sedative and tranquilliser. Indeed, it is termed an “anti-hysteric”. It also contains the neurotransmitter dopamine, which acts as a relaxant. Chocolate relaxes and love tends to flourish in a relaxed setting.

Moreover, chocolate contains phytosterols that may, in some way, mimic human sex hormones. Research into the hormone side of chocolate is in its infancy, but women will tell you they crave chocolate at certain times of the month. This may be because it provides them with something they need. Some researchers feel chocolate’s activity may go beyond hormonal and approach the pheromonal level. Pheromones are the compounds our bodies produce which make us attractive to other members of the species.

Practitioners’ Advice
The exciting news is that one can take advantage of the healthful elements of chocolate without all the calories and garbage chocolate bars pack. There is nothing wrong with chocolate, only the dairy fat and sugar it usually comes with. Chocolate tincture, made out of pure chocolate beans and nothing else, can be used to great effect without any guilt. Here are a few examples.

Firstly, for those people with a chocolate addiction, Chocolate Tincture can be used to wean oneself off the chocolate bar. One teaspoon three times a day should keep your cravings under control. However, if one is eating chocolate bars to fill a desperately unhappy life with happiness, one will need more than chocolate tincture. Always address the underlying problem and then all its symptoms go away. If you are unhappy and are using chocolate to fill in the gaps, think about getting a qualified counsellor and working through your unhappiness.

This raises another use of Chocolate Tincture. Dieting. Dieting is a horrible experience because it involves reducing food intake. Food gives us pleasure and therefore reducing our food means reducing pleasure. Humans do not like to give up pleasure! So, when approaching dieting, one has to brace oneself for a reduction in pleasure. Chocolate tincture can be used to put one in the best possible mood for this undertaking. Taken three times a day, Chocolate tincture can give that gentle boost that is required to give up that extra helping at dinner time. However, like with chocolate bar addiction, if your over eating is a symptom of an underlying unhappiness, find a counsellor that can help you get out from underneath the real problem.

Keeping a sex life exciting can be a challenge when one is married or partnered. Same person, same bed can lead to bedroom boredom. Indeed, keeping a sex life fulfilling is all about experimentation. The world of herbal medicine offers a host of aphrodisiacs that can be used in an experimentation regime. Get a hold of five different aphrodisiacs and try them on for size. Make it a project. Chocolate is one aphrodisiac that appears high on the list of aphrodisiacs worth a try. Try some Chocolate tincture and see if it makes a difference. It is used by millions for this purpose, even if they do not know it! Get playful with your sex life and use aphrodisiacs to do it.

QUICK REVIEW
History: Used by Central Americans for depression
Science: Contains chemicals that increase sense of well being
Practitioners’ Opinion: Useful in dieting, depression, and chocolate bingeing

Fact Sheet 2

Chocolate: Confection or Mind Candy

Today the average American consumes about 10 pounds of chocolate each year.(1)Unbeknownst to most, they are consuming an herbal medicine packed with mind active compounds. Amazingly, the Central American chocolate tree has been as source of mind medicine since at least 406 AD. and only entered the world of confection in the 19 th century! (1). As the Herb Files reveal, chocolate is a shockingly complex and highly mood altering substance which might be better described as mind candy.

Chocolate is a weird substance produced by a strange tree. Some might say the peculiar nature of the tree hints of the strange nature of chocolate! The Central American tree grows to about the size of a dogwood tree but unlike a normal tree, blooms and produces fruits on its trunk. The chocolate fruit is very skull like and when opened, contains a seed mass resembling the human brain. The seeds that make up the brain lobes are ‘chocolate beans’. As you will see, the resemblance of the fruit to the human brain is quite ironic.

This odd tree and brain shaped fruits did not go unnoticed by the ancient Central Americans and specifically the upper crust. For centuries the use of chocolate was the exclusive pleasure of royalty, dignitaries, and high standing members of society. Highly valuable, chocolate beans were used as money. Colonial records indicate that when the Spanish explorers arrived in the New World, a slave cost 100 chocolate beans and a rabbit cost 6 chocolate beans.(2) Chocolate beans were worth their weight in gold, not because they made a good bowel of ice cream, but rather because of their stimulating effect on the mind.

History reveals that high ranking Aztec officials used chocolate to help them keep up with their demanding posts. (3) They used chocolate as a stress tonic prior to the invention of the word stress! What are symptoms of stress? Exhaustion, depression, weight gain, and poor sex drive. Those burning the candle at both ends, with money in their pockets, reached for the chocolate bean.

When the Europeans arrived in the Americas’ after a long sea journey, they felt and probably looked a little worse for the wear. Obligingly, the indigenous people presented them with a tonic chocolate beverage. Their chocolate beverage was a long way off hot chocolate! It was concocted with chocolate beans, ground corn, cayenne pepper, and vanilla pods. Thought to be mental rocket fuel, this beverage would have been hard on the taste buds but electrifying to the mind. (4). The Spanish visitors were suitably impressed with the effects of chocolate to send some back to Spain. Mother Spain liked the new brown gold and an industry was born!

This could be the jumping off point for the history of chocolate confections. Rather than walking that path, we are going to follow a different route. We will follow the mind candy trail and see how chocolate kisses the mind as much as the taste buds. We are going to talk about the bean behind the bar.

We already know that ancient Central Americans used chocolate to stimulate the mind. In modern Latin America, the chocolate bean is still used as a mind tonic in depression, fatigue, weight gain, and poor sex drive. Is using raw chocolate for these purposes reasonable? As the Herb Files found, the scientific community has had fun studying the chocolate bean and scintillating facts have surfaced. Let’s look at these uses one at a time.

Depression
When do people tend to eat chocolate? When they are depressed, upset, and unhappy. Indeed, a USDA survey showed that Americans consume more chocolate in the notoriously blue winter months than any in other season. (6) A survey of 853 female university students noted that chocolate consumption was linked to premenstrual tension. (PMS) (7) People treat themselves to chocolate when they are feeling down.

Common sense says that if chocolate did not have some effect on depression, people would not consume it when they felt down. What is known about chocolate and depression?

Chocolate beans contain amino acids that have been shown to have an antidepressant activity. The list of anti-depressant amino acids contained in chocolate includes tryptophan, phenylalanine, and tyrosine. Looking at just one of these amino acids is telling. Tryptophan has been shown to increase the body’s production of serotonin, our bodies natural happy chemical.( 8 ) One study revealed that tryptophan reduced the number of violent episodes of aggressive psychiatric inpatients.(9) Research suggests chocolates’ cocktail of compounds may be responsible for the uplifted feeling experienced after a big bar of chocolate.

Exhaustion
People experiencing mental and physical fatigue often reach for a chocolate bar for an energy boost. Chocolate has been shown to act as a gentle energy stimulant. Firstly, it contains a wild combination of three related stimulants theobromine, theophylline(usually found in tea), and caffeine(usually found in coffee). One study looked at the effects of chocolate on recovery time of runners and found that after chocolate and a run, the runners had more energy than runners not eating chocolate . (10)

Could the stimulants found in chocolate make a person jittery? Probably not. The primary and unique stimulant found in chocolate, theobromine, stimulates nerve function without the jittery side effects experienced with caffeine. (11) More over, The stimulants contained in chocolate are balanced by the relaxing valeric acid and anxiety cutting glutamic acid it contains. (12) Indeed the University of Arizona medical school found that chocolate did not cause the heart palpitations or other heart irregularities (13) noted with caffeine consumption. Nature seems to have brewed a balanced stimulant for those in need of a little added energy.

Weight Gain/Weight Loss
Research has shown that when you eat your brain releases happy chemicals. People with a full stomach are always more pleasant than those in need of a meal! Unfortunately, the flip side is also true. When you reduce your food intake, attitudes seem to take a nose dive.

Can chocolate help those reducing their food intake? May be. Firstly chocolate contains a list of anti-depressant compounds that might counteract the bad mood associated with dieting. Beyond this, theobromine, the stimulant peculiar to chocolate, has been determined to act as an “anorexic”(14 ), a substance that reduces appetite. Chocolate may act as an appetite suppressant and antidepressant all in one.

Sex
Chocolate has long been used as an aphrodisiac in Latin America and every where else in the world. What does a suitor bring a date? A box of chocolates. What does a husband bring a wife after he has been behaving badly? A box of chocolates. Chocolate seems to get love flowing.

Of all chocolate’s activities, this one is the most poorly understood. What we do know is the valeric acid chocolate contains is a sedative and tranquilliser (15). It also contains the neurotransmitter dopamine, which acts as a mood booster(16), and of course there are the antidepressant components already discussed. Sexual feelings are more likely to surface when one is in a happy and relaxed state of mind.

Chocolate also contains phytosterols(17), hormone like substances that may mimic human sex hormones. Several interesting studies suggest there may be something to this. Several studies have shown that women crave chocolate in the premenstrual period (18), the moment when hormone levels are at their lowest. Chocolate may provide a hormone blast just when it is needed, or in the case of aphrodisiac use, just when it is wanted!

Using Chocolate as an Herbal Medicine
As the herb files have revealed, chocolate is a very interesting substance! The question becomes, how can we put this information into practise?

My research group in London has begun using chocolate beans in our clinic to treat mild depression, exhaustion, and poor sex drive. In addition, we have been using them in weight loss regimes and to wean people off chocolate bar addiction. Its early days, but, the response thus far has been very positive. If you are looking for a gentle boost of energy, an added tool in a weight loss regime, or a playful aphrodisiac, chocolate beans may be the herbal medicine for you.

Sadly, we need to separate ‘chocolate’ from the chocolate bar. Chocolate, as in the bean produced by the tree, offers a number of interesting activities and potential uses with few down sides. Chocolate bars have all these attributes but also contain dairy fat and protein, sugar, artificial flavors and more calories per square inch than most foods on the planet! You could use a chocolate bar medicinally (and people do without even knowing it), but, it is probably better to skip the junk and use the bean! Where do you get a chocolate bean?

Real chocolate beans can be found in Latin American grocery stores around the country. Ask for cacoa(pronounced ca-cow) and you will be presented with oval bean like seeds of a rich red-brown colour. If you bite into one of these beans, you will know you have been given the right thing. They taste like chocolate.

The traditional Latin American chocolate beverage is a bit complicated to make but is worth the effort. Take 24 raw chocolate beans and place them in a pan on the stove. Heat them on a low heat, constantly stirring, for five minutes. Take the beans out of the pan and let cool. Once cool, grind to a fine powder in an electric coffee grinder. This powder should then be added to three and a half cups of boiling water and allowed to boil for five minutes. Take the beverage off the stove. While cooling, sweeten to taste. The result is three cups of genuine cacao. It can be taken hot or cold.

For energy purposes or to reduce appetite, one cup, three times a day, will do the trick. For aphrodisiac purposes, one and a half cups, half an hour before sex , will make for an exciting evening. To wean yourself off chocolate bars, have one cup when the urge hits.(Maximum three cups a day)

A Latin American informant said while being interviewed about chocolate beans. Tostarlos(toast them), Molarlos(grind them), Macerlos(brew them) y Sentirlos(feel them)! Chocolate beans are an herbal medicine that one feels! Don’t miss out on the experience.

Having trouble finding a source of chocolate beans or too busy to bother buying, roasting, grinding, and brewing? Go to the health food shop and buy organic cacao powder. Three teaspoonfuls boiled in three cups of water is the equivalent to a pot brewed with 24 beans.

Warnings
Though chocolate beans are considered to be benign in nature, they are not recommended for patients with urinary stones, in pregnant and nursing women, to those with acid reflux problems, and to migraine sufferers.

Chocolate Herb File Facts for Sidebars
Theobroma cacao, the Latin name for chocolate, translates to food of the Gods. This tells us what the early colonials thought about the new found medicine. (27)

One study found that a chocolate extract reduced gastric ulceration by a combination of free radical scavenging and white blood cell modification. (20)

In a survey of 1000 college students, chocolate was found to be the most frequently craved of all foods. (22)

Though some suggest the chocolate consumption causes benign breast lumps(23) and even breast cancer(24), studies looking at both diseases found this was not the case.

Chocolate contains anti-oxidants(25), the compounds reported to scavenge damaging free radicals in the body.
Feel Good After that Chocolate Bar? (something to stick in a box somewhere at the beginning or to be made into a snappy intro.)

Chocolate contains a wild combination of compounds active on the brain and nervous system (5). Indeed chocolate contains so many mind active compounds that if chocolate were introduced today, it would probably be a prescription drug!

Chocolate contains nervous system stimulants. Caffeine (normally found in coffee), theophylline (normally found in tea), and theobromine, a stimulant unique to chocolate. (17) Chocolate is loaded with amino acids that increase a persons sense of well being, tryptophan and dopamine being two noted examples. (8,16) Chocolate contains cannabinoids, the chemicals that put the high in marijuana and hashish. (26) It also contains the relaxants valerianic and valeric acid. (12)

Chocolate: Good Guy or Bad Guy?
Despite all chocolate beans have to offer , many find it hard to see them as potentially good thing. Indeed, one recent study stated that regular chocolate confection consumers feel great guilt around their chocolate consumption(19). Their guilt may be warranted as the chocolate they consume is rich in animal fat, sugar, and artificial flavorings. We need to separate the bean and a bar!

References
1. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1994. Dec;60(6suppl):1060s-1064 . US Department of Agriculture Nationwide Food Consumption Survey 1987-1988.
2. Narcotic and Stimulant Plants of the Native Americans. rabbit and slave cost.
3. Narcotic and Stimulant Plants of the Native Americans. High ranking officials.
4. Narcotic and Stimulant Plants of the Native Americans. corn, red pepper, and vanilla bean.
5. Bruneton, Jean. Phytochemistry, Pharmacognosy. Lavoisier Press. 300 mind active compounds
6. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1994. Dec;60(6suppl):1060s-1064 . US Department of Agriculture Nationwide Food Consumption Survery 1987-1988.
7. Prevalence and severity of the premenstrual sydrome. Effects of foods and beverages that are seet or high in sugar content. Journal of Reproductive Medicine 1991. Feb:36(2):131-136.
8..Duke, James. Handbook of Biologically Active Phytochemicals and their activities. CRC Press. Tryptophan.
9. Tryptophan treatment of aggressive psychiatric inpatients. Biol.Psychiatry. 1990. Oct 15;28(8):728-32.
10. The Effects of a Chocolate Bar supplementation on moderate exercise recovery of recreational runners. Institute of Sports Medicine, Bejing Medical University, China.
11. Theobromine does not have the same side effects as caffeine.
12. Handbook of Biologically Active Phytochemicals and their activities. Duke, James. CRC Press. Valerianic acid, glutamic acid.
13.Hemodynamic and electrophysiological effects of acute chocolate ingestion in young adults. American Journal of Cardiology. 1999. August1: 84(3): 370,373,A10.
14. Handbook of Biologically Active Phytochemicals and their activities. Duke, James. CRC Press. Theobromine.
15. Handbook of Biologically Active Phytochemicals and their activities. Duke, James. CRC Press. Valerianic acid
16. Handbook of Biologically Active Phytochemicals and their activities. Duke, James. CRC Press. dopamine.
17. Phytochemical Constituents of GRAS Herbs. Duke, James. CRC Press. Theobroma cacao.
18. Chocolate craving and liking. Rozin,P. Levin, E, and StoessC. Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104.
19. Mood Modulation by food: an exploration of affect and cravings in chocolate addicts. British Journal of Clinical Psychology. 1995.February;34(Pt1):129-138.
20. Effects of polyphenol substances derived from Theobroma cacao on gastric mucosal lesion induced by ethanol. Biosci.Biotechno.Biochem 1998 August;62(8):1535-8.
21. Brain Cannibinoids in chocolate. Nature 1996. August 22: 383(6593):677-8.
22. Food Craving in a college population. Appetite 1001 Dec;17(3)167-75.
23. Methylxanthines and Breast Cancer. International Journal of Cancer 1987Oct 15;40 (4):469-73.
24. A case control study of caffeine and methylxanthines in benign breast disease. JAMA 1985April 26;253(16)2388-92.
25. Antioxidants in Chocolate. Waterhouse, Shirley, and Donovan. Lancet 1996Sept21: 348(9030):834
26. Trick or Treat from food endocannabinoids? Nature 1998 Dec 17;396(6712):636-637
27. Bruneton, Jean. Phytochemistry, Pharmacognosy. Lavoisier Press. 300 mind active compounds