CHOCOLATE 101:

Wondering how to lure your prospective summer fling?

Try the candy section of your local food mart.

According to a study done last month at the University of New Hampshire, moderate amounts of chocolate may provide just the romantic spark you need.

“Chocolate contains phenylethylamine … a stimulant also released who you interact with a loved one,” said UNH professor of psychology Suzanne Mitchell. “There are all sorts of positive components of chocolate.”

Striking a sweet mix of caffeine and other carbohydrates, chocolate may be an “upper,” or a mood enhancing stimulant, because of its unique chemical breakdown, according to Mitchell.

Caffeine is also found in cocoa, but to ingest the amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee, one would have to eat a half-pound of chocolate.

Chocolate also contains theobromine, the principal part of the cacao bean and a close structural relative of caffeine. Theobromine has one less methyl group than does caffeine, the major alkaloid of coffee and tea.

According to Mitchell, chocolate’s theobromine content may contribute to — but seems unlikely to determine — its subtle but distinctive profile.

Chocolate also contains tryptophan. Tryptophan is an amino acid that ups the mood-modulating neurotransmitter serotonin — like that of Prozac. Enhanced serotonin function typically diminishes anxiety.

CHOCOLATE LOVER

OR CHOCAHOLIC?

Feeling like you can’t get enough of the tasty treat? According to the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, researchers have located a group of chemicals that might contribute to the feelings associated with chocolate binging.

Tomas Herraiz, a chemist at the Spanish Council for Scientific Research in Madrid, found that ordinary cocoa and chocolate bars contain a group of alkaloids known as tetrahydro-beta-carbolines, chemicals that have been linked to alcoholism. The family of compounds, which are also known as neuroactive alkaloids, continues to be investigated for possible influences on mood and

behavior.

The same chemicals discovered in chocolate are found in wine, beer and liquor, though no connection has been established between compulsive drinking and food addiction, Herraiz said in the report. The combination of the new found compounds and other chemicals in chocolate could help explain chocolate cravings, he said.

A SCOOP OF GOOD NEWS

Lie to yourself.

Put down that pint of Bovinity Divinity, scoop up a vat of low-fat chocolate ice cream and pretend it’s the real thing — your taste buds won’t notice the difference, according to a group of scientists at the University of Missouri.

Their study found “no significant difference” in the flavors of low-fat and regular chocolate ice cream — a distinction exclusive to chocolate ice cream due its complex chemical make-up, scientists said.

Reported at last year’s American Chemical Society national meeting, the study — essentially a taste test with a scientific basis — was conducted by chemist Ingolf Gruen, of the university’s Department of Food Science. Gruen said he targeted chocolate because the popular flavor had not previously been studied.

“There has been research done with vanilla ice cream, but there was absolutely no published research done on chocolate ice cream,” Gruen said in a written statement. “Since the reduction of fat in vanilla ice creams resulted in a less smooth and harsher taste, and people disliked it more, we wondered if that was true for chocolate ice cream.”

While a single chemical compound supports the flavor of vanilla, chocolate is a mixture of many chemicals, according to Gruen. Its complexity makes chocolate a less susceptible to flavor degradation.

Gruen based his conclusion on the study he conducted with panels of trained and untrained volunteer tasters from the campus.

In one part of the experiment, ice creams that had various amounts of fat were replaced with Simplesse, a fat substitute. In the other series, researchers compared ice cream containing 2.5 percent milk fat with ice cream in which the milk fat had been replaced with cocoa butter, Simplesse or DairyLo, another fat substitute. For both tests, volunteers, some trained tasters and some untrained, tasted the ice creams and described their attributes with words such as “creamy, icy or chalky.”

“People basically like the .5 percent non-fat ice cream just as much as they like the full-fat [9 percent milk fat] chocolate ice cream,” he said.

Tasters found the intensity of the flavor varied with the fat content — like the difference between milk chocolate and dark chocolate. But the much larger group of untrained survey participants said they didn’t think that difference mattered much.

The Missouri study is good news for health-conscious chocolate ice cream lovers.

“When it comes to chocolate ice cream, the decision to buy a good-tasting ice cream is independent of the fat content,” Gruen said. “Most likely, you will like the ice cream and not be able to tell the difference.”