When you were growing up, chocolate and cockroaches were high on your list of favorite things. The appealing taste of chocolate suspended in a sweet ganache shell and the thought of crunching into a soft, exoskeleton filled with juicy goodness was all-encompassing. As an adult, you’ve still retained the love for both of these items but for very different reasons which we will explore in this article. But I know what you’re thinking — is this topic even blog post worthy? Do people care about something as juvenile as this? Don’t they have better things to do than read about a comparison between chocolate and bugs? Sure they do. They also have better things to do than brush their teeth, floss, or put on deodorant. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t going to do them (most of the time). I’m going to tell you something you might not like: You might die. Yes, someday you will no longer be here and months from now, you’ll be forgotten. It only seems fair that I tell you at the beginning that life is not fair. A few billion years ago, evolution created single-celled organisms for the sole purpose of survival. Nearly 4 billion years later, life evolved into what it is today. In a few more decades, humans will have conquered this planet and moved onto something else. You’re probably scratching your head trying to figure out where this title came from. It’s a book on leadership. A lot of us have read the book already, and personally I thought it was terrible. In fact, when I drove to Indiana last weekend with my girlfriend, I absolutely sucked at explaining why I loved the book so much. The best analogy I could think of was that it was like a girl I knew (I’m not implying anything about her). She was very strong and confident on the outside but had a soft heart inside. This book is like that chocolate bar – hard on the outside, soft on the inside.

Chocolate And Cockroaches

Introduction

If you need one more reason to be obsessed with chocolate other than the fact that it tastes good, a recent study at Yale found out that cockroaches are also passionate about chocolate. What’s even more interesting is that researchers found a neurochemical in the brains of both humans and cockroaches that makes them attracted to this sweet treat. So, what does it mean for us?

What do cockroaches and chocolate have in common?

There’s a compound in both chocolate and cockroaches that can be used to kill the insects. It’s called theobromine, and it works by stopping an enzyme in the roach brain from breaking down naturally. The result is respiratory arrest—an insect version of heart failure.

Theobromine has been used to fight cockroach infestations since at least 1879 when entomologist Dr. William Peck suggested adding it to flour as bait in his home state of Massachusetts. In 2005, researchers tested Hershey’s milk chocolate bars and found they were toxic enough to kill German cockroaches within forty-eight hours of consumption; other brands yielded similar results under laboratory conditions

The same compound wasn’t being used in both species.

The same compound wasn’t being used in both species. The scientists found that the same brain receptor was activated in roaches and humans, but they didn’t use the same compound. When you ingest chocolate, your body breaks down its active ingredient into another chemical called anandamide (also known as arachidonylethanolamide). This chemical then binds to your brain’s receptors and makes you feel good. Interestingly enough, many other plants also contain compounds that bind to the same receptors—including cannabis! So if you have access to some marijuana leaves or seeds, it might be worth a try 😉

What does this mean for humans?

What does this mean for humans?

Chocolate contains a number of compounds that are known to have health benefits. However, it has also been shown to be addictive and can have negative effects on the brain when consumed in excess. The same may be true for insects: chocolate is delicious, but it may also affect cockroaches’ brains in ways we don’t yet understand.

If a cockroach is as attracted to chocolate at some of us are, that’s saying something.

Cockroaches are omnivores, meaning they eat almost anything. But cockroaches are attracted to the same compound in chocolate that humans are—and the same compound that attracts us to chocolate. That’s not surprising for creatures so closely related to us, but it does make one wonder if cockroaches enjoy a good bar of dark chocolate just as much as we do.

Conclusion

After all, if cockroaches are as attracted to chocolate as some humans, just imagine how delicious chocolate must be.