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Chocolate acts like a drug on the human brain
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
Very often, those with a sweet tooth find it difficult to overcome an inexplicable craving for chocolate. Its attractive power is so great that you want to enjoy another piece, and then another, and so you can go through a whole bar of the most delicious delicacy, and sometimes more than one.
So what is the secret behind such a strong attraction to chocolate?
This is what scientists from the University of Michigan tried to find out.
Despite the fact that the results of many studies speak about the healing properties of chocolate, which have a beneficial effect on the heart and can reduce the risk of strokes, experts equate it with... a drug.
There is a section in the brain called the neostriatum, which scientists previously believed was only responsible for controlling various human movements. However, it has now been discovered that this section contains the center of pleasure that a person gets from eating.
During the research, experts conducted experiments on rats, which were injected directly into this area with enkephalin, which is similar in its action to morphine, capable of reducing sensitivity to pain.
When rats received a dose of enkephalin, an unexpected picture appeared before the eyes of experts: the rodents began to consume chocolate candies with incredible speed and in incredible quantities. In an hour, one rat ate from 3 to 3.5 kilograms of sweets. According to scientists, if a similar experiment were conducted on people, the effect would be similar, with the only difference being that a person would be able to handle up to 70 kilograms of chocolate.
"We saw first-hand that the mechanism by which chocolate affects the brain is very similar to how drugs affect it," says study co-author Alexandra Di Feliceantonio. "The same area of the brain is activated by drug addicts when they see drugs. It is very difficult for a person to overcome themselves and refuse something that brings them pleasure."
Of course, the specialists refused to conduct such experiments on people. However, they conducted another experiment. Using magnetic resonance imaging, the researchers scanned the human brain. They observed the activity of the neostriatum during the demonstration of drugs to drug addicts. The activity of this area increased sharply when contemplating drugs. Food had the same effect on obese people. People with normal weight reacted to food insignificantly.
This study provides new insights into the pleasure centers of the human brain and reveals new secrets behind the habits in which people reward themselves for a particular outcome with food.
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