new power item discovered: theobromine. the stuff in cocoa that gives you energy that isn’t caffeine

I hate dark chocolate, but I tried eating a little of it regularly for a while to see if it did anything like it does for others. unsurprisingly, it never had any effect on me, no food ever does, I need much higher than normal doses of anything to feel any effect whatsoever

but you can get theobromine in 400mg capsules, and over the past week, these things have seemed to give me just enough of an energy and alertness boost to make a noticeable improvement to my mood and motivation, and with zero downsides. unlike caffeine where I get no energy and all the downsides. the effects have also lasted far longer than caffeine ever did, even when it used to work on me

if this result stays consistent for the next two weeks, this will probably be the third best thing in my cabinet behind only vitamin D and magnesium. it’s not even expensive

@kit omg interesting that caffeine doesn’t work for you but theobromine does, because theobromine is a metabolite of caffeine. I wonder of the caffeine is somehow counteracting the effects of the theobromine in that case, or maybe there just isn’t enough of it produced by your liver when you take caffeine

actually I just looked it up and only about 10% of caffeine is metabolized into theobromine (source), so that would explain why a large dose of theobromine has an effect that caffeine doesn’t have for you

@kasdeya oh, caffeine does nothing no matter how I get it. I used to take it in tablet form once or twice a month on days I needed it, but sometime in 2021 or 2022 I think, the effect went from something to nothing in four doses spread over two months

since then, for Science™, I’ve tried it again a few times even after accepting it doesn’t help, just to see what happens. I took 500mg of caffeine in one go once. absolutely no energy or anything else positive, just jitters, coldness, gastrointestinal distress, and a three day headache