Every year, at the Roehrich family Christmas party, I never thought twice about all the chocolate exchanged as gifts. It never occurred to me that it might be considered extreme. After all, it's not like the turkey was dressed in chocolate syrup or anything! I just thought chocolate was as synonymous to Christmas as it was to Valentine's Day. But when Rex was about to join the family, I took him to the extended family's Christmas party and he thought it was obscene, the amount of chocolate that was flying around.
A few years after we were married, it was my turn to visit his family for Christmas, and I went through major chocolate withdrawals. First of all, a Californian does not do well in the freezing tundra of the Great North. Second, if you are going to be that cold, you had better be well stocked on hot cocoa! What in the world?! No chocolate? What was wrong with these people? It was Christmas, for crying out loud! I was so deprived, we bundled up and Rex drove me into town to find a Walmart so I could pump some chocolate elixir back into my body. And no, I was not going to share! Everyone else could eat those sugar cookies and popcorn balls. Sorry, but eating any other treat is like cubic zirconium instead of a diamond (to any other girl who actually cared about jewelry).
My in-laws always said I might be allergic. I thought it was the craziest idea that just because I craved chocolate, they thought I could have an allergy to it. But I thought maybe they were right; maybe I had a food intolerance. As people get older, sometimes their bodies no longer like what their tongues do, so, to figure out why my tummy hurt whenever I ate, I decided to try an elimination diet. I tried abstaining from different foods, but there was no change, so I decided to take the plunge and go without chocolate. It was torture! It took me so many tries to actually go without a handful of chocolate chips every day, and then when I finally made it 2 weeks, I found out it was all for nothing. My stomach was still not happy. In fact, I think it was even angrier! When I had a UTI, I went nearly 2 months without chocolate because I was trying to starve the bacteria of sugar and drown out the infection with lemon and/or pure cranberry (blech!). Not eating anything made my tummy happy but my tongue very depressed and my scale angry.
I knew I was addicted. I couldn't just stop whenever I wanted, but I figured I wasn't doing myself any harm. Besides, I could just run more to burn off the chocolate calories. But to say I was allergic was just ridiculous! Even so, the idea nags at the back of my mind, and I found an interesting article about an "allergy-addiction syndrome," so I can't completely disregard the idea. However, I think that if I am allergic to something, it must be like Robert's intolerance to anything artificial, because the only thing my stomach seems to agree with are fruits and vegetables. (Any wonder why I drink so many smoothies? They are no substitute for chocolate, but the next best thing is always fruit! So logically, I should just become a vegetarian. Hmm, then what would I feed my husband?)
So my next question is: why am I so addicted to chocolate? Maybe if I knew what it was about chocolate I was craving, I could find a better substitute. The obvious reason is that it tastes good. Really, really good. But I seriously think I need chocolate for more than its flavor.
Serotonin, dopamine, endorphins, theobromine and phenylethylamine. Those are the secret ingredients. Science has proven that chocolate releases feel-good hormones related to love and affection. And oxytocin! We've all heard people describe chocolate as better than sex, right? Well, I can't exactly agree to that, but maybe chocolate is the next best thing. Perhaps the cure to my chocolate addiction is sitting right in front of me!
1 comment:
For the record, we did not say you were allergic to chocolate, just that there was a good possiblity that it was the case.
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