From: [C upi] at [clari.net] (UPI / ELIZABETH MANNING)
Newsgroups: clari.biz.industry.food,clari.tw.health.misc,clari.news.alcohol+drugs,clari.tw.science
Subject: Chocolate reveals its dark side
Keywords: lifestyle, food, health, social issues, substance abuse
Organization: Copyright 1996 by United Press International
Date: Wed, 21 Aug 1996 14:10:20 PDT
                                         
        WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Citizens, beware the chocoholic.  
California scientists reported Wednesday that they have found compounds 
in the cocoa treat that stimulate the same system in the brain that 
marijuana does. 
        The compounds do not appear to produce a ``high'' of their own, but  
evidence suggests they may prolong euphoric feelings. 
        ``We have discovered chemicals in chocolate that can stimulate the  
brain's own cannabinoid system,'' said Daniele Piomelli, one of three 
pharmacologists at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego who 
conducted the research. 
        The cannabinoid system is the complex network of neurons, receptors  
and chemical signals in the brain whose normal function can be altered 
by marijuana. 
        The scientists, who published their findings in the British journal  
Nature, said that they had been intrigued by reports that some marijuana 
smokers craved chocolate. 
        This popular treat blends ground beans from the cocoa plant with milk  
and other ingredients, and is rich in fats. Piomelli and his colleagues 
thought that it might not be coincidence that the natural chemical in 
the brain mimicked by marijuana's psychoactive constituent THC, or 
tetrahydrocannabinol, is a molecule related to fat. 
        The natural substance, called anandamide, was discovered by Israeli  
scientists in 1992 and, like THC, triggers euphoria. But the brain keeps 
a lot less of it around, which is why most people are not permanent 
space cadets. 
        And last year, the substance that ``turns off'' anandamide's signal --  
an enzyme that plucks it from its receptor on the surface of neurons and 
breaks it down -- was discovered by Piomelli's lab. 
        The new compounds that the pharmacologists extracted from chocolate  
resemble anandamide. ``What we think happens is that these chemicals 
accumulate in the pocket of the enzyme,'' said Piomelli. ``And being 
similar but not identical to anandamide, they change the shape of the 
enzyme, and it works less efficiently,'' in cell cultures, at least. 
        In other words, the chocolate stuff sneaks in and distracts the  
enzyme from its real job of turning off the signal. Anandamide molecules 
stay bound to their receptors, and the mild (and normal) signal to feel 
euphoria stays turned on. 
        Now replace anandamide with THC.  
        Piomelli was quick to emphasize that the chocolate constituents do  
not appear to work in the same fashion as THC -- that is, bind to 
receptors directly. 
        ``It's not that they produce their own high,'' he said. ``They  
probably only enhance what our own systems normally make.'' 
        He is currently testing the compounds in lab rats.  
        The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, when informed of the  
potential chocolate menace by United Press International, declined to 
comment.