How much chocolate can an individual eat before dying?

Answer 1

The LD50 (the dose required to kill 50% of test subjects) must be in the many pound range. Still, that is not a healthy thing to do. One ounce of Milk Chocolate has about 6mg of caffeine and about 44mg of theobromine. Baking Chocolate has higher levels of both, running around 35mg of caffeine and 392mg of theobromine. The LD50 of theobromine in humans is approximately 1g per kilo of body weight, and caffeine is about 175mg per kilo. I personally weight about 68 kilograms, so my LD50 levels are about 68kg 1g/kg = 68g of theobromine or about 68kg * 0.175g/kg = 12g of caffeine. Given that most of the chocolate I eat is up in the 70% chocolate solids content, and I want a little safety margin, I'll just go ahead and use the baking chocolate numbers to find out that I would need to consume to reach my LD50 level:

theobromine: 68g * 1oz/.392g = 173.5oz = 10.8lb

Caffeine: 12g * 1oz/.035g = 342.9oz = 21.4lb

So, basically this says that the theobromine is by far more toxic that caffeine when it comes to chocolate consumption, and that I'd have to eat almost 11 pounds of baking chocolate in order to be in the realm of a 50% chance of lethality. Most of the bars I buy are 8oz, so that's about 22 bars.

Phew. Close one today. Next time I'll play it safe and keep the number down in the teens.

Your answer was based on the assumption that the consumer was eating regular chocolate. There is a HEALTHY Dark Chocolate produced with unprocessed, non-alkalized, non-lecithinized cacao powder with a higher antioxidant level than acai, blueberries, brocoli, etc. "Normal" chocolate uses processed cocoa powder and sugars, along with bad fats, fillers, waxes, preservatives, etc. So while traditional chocolate could possibly result in death by chocolate, this healthy chocolate is believe to bring health and healing. Perhaps that's while the botanical name for the VEGETABLE that is the source of chocolate is Theobroma cacao - "food of the gods."

Answer 2

200mg can kill you because it contains a poison chocolate is good for you in small quantities and you don't want to eat too much because when you start to feel sick it means you are starting to poison yourself and you don't want to be doing that when you start to feel sick you should stop eating the chocolate otherwise you might end up in hospital very Ill and you might kill yourself so don't' eat too much and be safe of how much you eat........

Answer 3

aprox 22 lb