substantially less. Cocoa powder has around
20 mg caffeine per tablespoon/10 g.
Cravings for Chocolate Because many
people, especially women, experience
cravings for chocolate that border on the
symptoms of addiction, it has been thought
that chocolate might contain psychoactive
chemicals. Chocolate does turn out to contain
both “cannabinoid” chemicals — chemicals
similar to the active ingredient in marijuana
— as well as other molecules that cause brain
cells to accumulate cannabinoid chemicals.
But these are present in extremely small
amounts that probably have no practical
significance. Similarly, chocolate contains
phenylethylamine, a naturally occurring body
chemical that has amphetamine-like effects
— but then so do sausages and other
fermented foods. In fact there is good
experimental evidence that chocolate does not
contain any drug-like substances capable of