Death by Chocolate: Yes! Chocolate can kill. But how much would kill you?

 Choco Yum Yum! Mathspig lervs chocolate. But did you know chocolate can kill you?

Chocolate contains a chemical called Theobromine. This alkaloid ( other alkaloids include cocaine, nicotine, caffeine, and strychnine) can kill humans. More info Wired Magazine.

How much chocolate is too much?

Firstly, the darker the chocolate the more Theobromine it contains.

According to About Chemistry based on the highest possible toxicity:

* Vetmedicine: Cooking chocolate contains 8-10 times the Theobromine in Milk Chocolate.

According to Wired large doses of theobromine may cause “nausea and anorexia ….. sweating, trembling and severe headache.”

The Royal Society of Chemistry notes that chocolate does not contain caffeine, but theobromine induces similar symptoms.

LD50 for the lethal dose for 50% of the population for Theobromine is:

1000 mg/kg 0r 1gm/kg of body weight in humans

Death by Chocolate Calculations:

1. FORMULA

2. GRAPH

3. Percentage

Death by Chocolate for DOGS

Chocolate can be fatal to dogs. As dogs are small they can easily eat enough chocolate to kill them. According to The Royal Society of Chemistry

The National Geographic has an amazing interactive chart for dog poisoning by chocolate.

Death by Chocolate for CATS

Chocolate contains a poison called Theobromine.

LD50 for  Theobromine for cats is 200mg.

LD = Lethal Dose. LD50= Lethal Dose for 50% of the population. Cats in this case. This is how poison toxicity is measured. 

According to The Royal Society of Chemistry, cats are hypersensitive to Theobromine but, as cats cannot taste sweetness, they are rarely poisoned.

MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig MathsPig …………………………………………………. with Kerry Cue

Helloooo My Little Luvvies,

 

So here are the 10 Maths Mystery Box challenges I’ve put together for you:

1. Maths Mystery Box 1: NOT STUPID

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2. Maths Mystery Box 2: CURIOUS

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3. Maths Mystery Box 3: NERD

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4. Maths Mystery Box 4: FUNNY THAT

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5. Maths Mystery Box 5: FANTASY

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6. Maths Mystery Box 6: WEIRD

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7. Maths Mystery Box 7: PHONES

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8. Maths Mystery Box 8: JUNK FOOD

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9. Maths Mystery Box 9: MUSIC

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10. Maths Mystery Box 10: LETHAL

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And the bonus Maths Mystery Box Question:

Sniffer rats have been in the news this week, but:

 When is a sniffer rat better than a sniffer dog?

(Hint: It has to do with a measurement?)

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Isn’t MATHS marvelous? And magical too!

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Hoo Roo for now,

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MATHSPIG

 

Death by Chocolate: The Maths

 Choco Yum Yum! Mathspig lervs chocolate. But did you know chocolate can kill you?

Chocolate contains a chemical called Theobromine. This alkaloid ( other alkaloids include cocaine, nicotine, caffeine and strychnine) can kill humans. More info Wired Magazine.

How much chocolate is too much?

Firstly, the darker the chocolate the more Theobromine it contains.

According to About Chemistry:

Based on highest possible toxicity:

White Chocolate: insignificant

.

.

Milk Chocolate 1-5 g/kg

200gm block = 1 gm per block

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Dark Chocolate 10 g/kg

200gm block = 2gm per block

 ..

…………………………………………………….

Cooking or Baking chocolate* 10-50 g/kg

200mg block = 10 g per block

(* Vetmedicine: Cooking chocolate contains 8-10 times the Theobromine in Milk Chocolate )

According to Wired large doses of theobromine may cause “nausea and anorexia ….. sweating, trembling and severe headache.”

The Royal Society of Chemistry notes that chocolate does not contain caffeine, but theobromine induces similar symptoms.

LD50 for the lethal dose for 50% of the population f or Theobromine is:

1000 mg/kg 0r 1gm/kg of body weight in humans

Death by Chocolate Calculations:

1. FORMULA

2. GRAPH

3. Percentage

Death by Chocolate for DOGS

Chocolate can be fatal to dogs. As dogs are small they can easily eat enough chocolate to kill them. According to The Royal Society of Chemistry

LD50 or Lethal Dose for 50% of the population of dogs for Theobromine is 300 mg/kg or 0.3 gm/kg.

 

chihuahua weighs 3 kg or less

cocker spaniel weighs 12 kg

Great Dane weighs 64 kg

 

Dogs are susceptible to Chocolate Poisoning because they do not metabolise Theobromine very quickly. In other words, they can gobble down a lot of chocolate (Christmas Day and Valentine’s Day are danger zones for dogs) and the chemical builds up in the body to a lethal dose.

 

The National Geographic has an amazing interactive chart for dog poisoning by chocolate.

Death by Chocolate for CATS

Chocolate contains a poison called Theobromine.

LD50 for  Theobromine for cats is 200mg.

LD = Lethal Dose. LD50= Lethal Dose for 50% of the population. This is how poison toxicity is measured. 

According to The Royal Society of Chemistry, cats are hypersensitive to Theobromine but, as cats cannot taste sweetness, they are rarely poisoned.

Sweet Tooth Maths 1

Good News for Chocoholics

To get the right texture Easter Eggs are made from sugar or sucrose and not from corn syrup. But chocolate contain lots and lots of sugar.

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Guylian Sea Shells:

Weight Sea Shell: 120 g

Weight Sugar: 48g

% sugar = 48/120 x 100 = 40%

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This is a Guylian Luxury Easter Egg. It can also be used as a designer handbag, I guess.

Guylian Easter Eggs:

Weight Easter Egg: 100g

Weight Sugar: 52g

% sugar = 52/100 x 100 = 52%

You’ll find nutrition data here.

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Easter Challenge:

Here is the largest Chocolate Easter Egg ever.

This Giant Egg from the Guinness Book of Records was made in 2005 in Belgium by chocolate maker Guylian.

Statistics:

Height: 8.32 m

Weight: 1950 kg chocolate or 4300 lb

No. Chocolatiers: 26

No. Chocolate bars: 50,000

Total time: 525 hrs

Easter Challenge for Chocoholics

The amount of sugar in the giant egg weighs as much as a Fiat Pinto.

Sweet Tooth Maths 2

Gather round mathpiggies.

Today we are going to be Food Scientists; food science needs maths and this food science is important for your health and diet.

Before we do the maths we must understand the science of sugar. Here is a simple explanation.

In the USA corn, which is 100% glucose, undergoes an industrial process that breaks down the long glucose chains  and converts some glucose to fructose because fructose delivers a bigger sweetness hit on your tongue and corn is cheap. The resulting HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) is, on average, 60% fructose.

Now we can do the maths.

This important information below comes from the Goran Labs

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Food Science Maths

or

Fast Food Maths

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1. Draw up a bar graph of the weight of sugar(sucrose) and fructose for 8 drinks.

2. Plot the weight of sugar(sucrose) and fructose for 8 drinks on axes.

3. Assuming that 100ml of soft drink weighs 100g – this is realistic- calculate the percentage of sugar(sucrose) and fructose. This exercise is to see if students are paying attention. It is very easy!

 4. Drinking too much sugar in any form is not advisable, but fructose in large quantities just adds calories without satisfying your hunger. Which drinks are loaded with fructose?

Sweet Tooth Maths 3

Food Scientists check to see if the stated sugar content of food equals the actual sugar content. Here is a medium sized Macdonald’s Coke.

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The size of a medium sized coke is:

 590ml (Australia) containing 55 g sugar.

621 ml (21 fl oz) USA containing 58 g sugar

 400ml (UK) with 42 g sugar.

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You can get nutrition information for Macdonald’s coke for Australia here , the USA here and the UK here.

Food Science Maths

Q 1. Calculate the percentage sugar in Maccas cokes in Australia, the USA and the UK assuming 1 ml coke weighs 1 g.

Ans: 9.3% (Aus), 9.3% (USA) and 10.5% (UK)

Here are some interesting results for the Goran Labs. This table shows you the % variation in sugar content of soft drink samples.

Q2. Calculate the actual amount of sugar for by weight for each medium sized Macdonalds coke if, as shown in the graph above, there was 28% more sugar than stated on the nutrition panel, in the brochure or on the website.

Ans: 70.4 g (Aus), 74.2 g (USA) and 53.7g

Well, chug-a-lug mathspiggies, you can see which country is getting a big sugar hit at Maccas.