A study from Ohio University tells you why certain foods such as coffee and chocolate affect your moods. Just like alcohol or drugs, food and spices can excite, calm or rattle the brain."The distinction of what is a drug and what is food is blurring completely. Natural things are also drugs," The New York Post quoted Gary Wenk, a professor at the Ohio State University and Medical Center and the author of the new book 'Your Brain on Food', as saying.
Different foods stimulate different regions of the brain, releasing chemicals like dopamine and serotonin that promote well-being. On the flip side, a lack of certain amino acids can cause depression and, in severe cases, madness.
The glow created by chocolate and coffee isn't just caused by caffeine, but also by a rush of dopamine that triggers the brain's pleasure receptors, Wenk said.
Chocolate also releases a form of opiate that causes that la-la feeling, along with a small amount of a substance akin to marijuana. With all that pleasure packed into a Hershey bar, it's a miracle the feds don't regulate the stuff, he joked.
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