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Chocolate Rage?

rynner2

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Thorntons man quits over chocolate 'squishing'
By Tom Chivers
Last Updated: 2:43am BST 16/10/2007

The man described as the "Willy Wonka" of Britain's chocolatiers has resigned after engaging in an "act of truffle-squishing" in a rival store.

Barry Colenso, the master chocolatier at Thorntons, was watched by baffled staff as he roamed the Hotel Chocolat store in Nottingham, handling various truffles.

When they inspected his handiwork after he left, it was discovered that he had mutilated £63.50's worth of chocolates.

CCTV images later confirmed that the perpetrator was Mr Colenso.

A statement from Hotel Chocolat said: "This was an extraordinary act of truffle-squishing. We can only guess at what provoked it.

“The staff observed Mr Colenso handling a number of truffles in a way that made them suspicious. When we checked the truffles, they had been squashed and damaged."

According to the statement, Mr Colenso has agreed to leave Thorntons after admitting to "inappropriate handling" of Hotel Chocolat's products.

A Thornton's spokesman said: "Mr Barry Colenso has resigned. We will not be commenting any further on this matter."

Hotel Chocolat said it would not be taking further action regarding the incident.

Mr Colenso has made headlines before, having designed a 390kg (860lb) chocolate billboard that was erected in London’s Covent Garden in Easter of this year. Passers-by ate the sign in three hours. :D

Thorntons has been Britain's premier specialist chocolatier since its founding in 1911, despite the rapid growth of rivals Hotel Chocolat, who have opened 23 stores since their move from catalogue-only service to the high street in 2004.

http://tinyurl.com/2klmuz
 
He should have ate them, shown him what a REAL Chocolate tastes like.

(Says she who cannot afford hotel Chocolats products but would not give a thank you for thorntons.)
 
I'd just like to add that if anyone was planning on giving Thorntons chocolates to Kondoru they can give them to me instead and I will manage to show gratitude.
Ta.

Actually I am very much reminded of the quotation "The first sign of a nervous breakdown is when you start thinking your work is terribly important."
 
This could explain chocolate rage,

Chocolate Gorging Linked To Opium Chemical In Brain
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/250517.php

21 Sep 2012

A new brain study suggests an opium-like chemical may drive the urge to gorge on chocolate candy and similar fatty and sweet treats.

Researchers discovered this when they gave rats an artificial boost with a drug that went straight to a brain region called the neostriatum: it caused the animals to eat twice the amount of M&Ms they would otherwise have eaten.

The team also found that when the rats began to eat the chocolate-coated candies, there was a surge in enkephalin, a natural opium-like substance that is produced in the same region of the brain.

Alexandra DiFeliceantonio of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in the US, and colleagues, write about their findings in a paper published online on Thursday in the journal Current Biology.
Findings

"Here, we provide evidence that enkephalin surges in an anteromedial quadrant of dorsal neostriatum contribute to generating intense consumption of palatable food," they write, noting that:

"Endogenous >150% enkephalin surges in anterior dorsomedial neostriatum were triggered as rats began to consume palatable chocolates," before concluding:

"These findings reveal that opioid signals in anteromedial dorsal neostriatum are able to code and cause motivation to consume sensory reward."
Insights Into Overconsumption

Commenting on the findings to the press, DiFeliceantonio says:

"This means that the brain has more extensive systems to make individuals want to overconsume rewards than previously thought."

"It may be one reason why overconsumption is a problem today," she notes.

The findings uncover a surprising role for the neostriatum, which until now has mostly been linked to movement. But there are reasons why this discovery in rats might reveal something about the human tendency for binge-eating:

"The same brain area we tested here is active when obese people see foods and when drug addicts see drug scenes," says DiFeliceantonio.

"It seems likely that our enkephalin findings in rats mean that this neurotransmitter may drive some forms of overconsumption and addiction in people," she adds.
Urge Not Same As Liking

The team points out enkephalins or similar drugs may exert their effect not by increasing a liking for chocolates, only the urge to eat them: not unlike the compulsive overconsumption that characterizes disorders ranging from binge eating to drug addiction.

They now plan to investigate a related topic: what happens in the brain that makes us want to stop when we come across a fast food outlet?

References:

"Enkephalin Surges in Dorsal Neostriatum as a Signal to Eat"; Alexandra G. DiFeliceantonio, Omar S. Mabrouk, Robert T. Kennedy, and Kent C. Berridge; Current Biology, published online 20 Sep 2012; DOI:10.1016/j.cub.2012.08.014; Link to Article.

Additional source: Cell Press.
 
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