Heavenly Food
Chocolate, everyone’s favourite food, is made from the beans that grow on the cacao, or cocoa (co-co) tree. The tree’s Latin name means “The food of the gods.”
Chocolate Tree
The cocoa tree grows in South America. Cocoa beans look a bit like a coffee bean crossed with a wrinkly almond. They grow in pods about the size of a squash (8” long). South Americans have been making drinks from them for thousands of years. The word ‘chocolate’ comes from an Aztec word. Today, more than half of chocolate is grown in Africa.
Swiss Milk Chocolate
Chocolate made its way to Europe with the Spaniards and became a popular drink by 1650. In the 1850s, an English company made the first solid chocolate snack. In 1875, a Swiss man added milk to its chocolate products, creating milk chocolate and the Nestlé company. The Swiss are still the world’s leaders in chocolate consumption.
Melt in Your Mouth
To turn the beans into chocolate, they are crushed, and the oils (cocoa butter) are extracted, leaving a powder. The cocoa powder is combined with sugar, vanilla and the previously extracted cocoa butter. It is the cocoa butter that gives chocolate its smooth texture. Cocoa butter melts at body temperature, which creates that melt-in-your-mouth experience of eating chocolate.
Chocolate Skin Cream
In addition to its use in making chocolate, cocoa butter is used in skin creams. It’s a natural moisturizer.
Chocolate Labels
Unsweetened baking chocolate is just pure cocoa. White chocolate has cocoa butter but no cocoa powder. Foods labelled as “chocolate” have to follow specific rules compared to foods labelled as “candy” or “confection.” For example, the FDA requires that “White Chocolate” contain at least 20% cocoa butter. Canada requires that “Milk Chocolate” contain 25% cocoa, 15% cocoa butter, and at least 12% milk.
Benefits of Plant Food
The cocoa bean is a natural plant fruit and does have health benefits. It increases blood flow by relaxing blood vessels. It also reduces blood pressure in some people. It might also help with cholesterol and hidden inflammation.
Daily Chocolate
Unfortunately, milk chocolate does not have enough cocoa to be beneficial. To get the benefits of cocoa from eating chocolate, it has to be dark chocolate, preferable 75%—85%. One bar (100g) has a daily dose of cocoa beans that will help with circulation. The problem is it has over 200 calories.
Chocolate Pills
If you are not a fan of dark chocolate or don’t want the calories, you can still get the benefits of cocoa beans in capsules. Make sure you are getting a pure cocoa bean if you purchase capsules.
Stimulating Chocolate
Chocolate does contain some caffeine, so some people are energized by it. A milk chocolate bar has about 15mg---less than half the caffeine in a can of Coke. Dark chocolate, which has more cocoa bean, has more caffeine. A bar (100g) of dark chocolate has about 80mg of caffeine, similar to 2 cans of Coke or a small cup of coffee.
Second Stimulant
Chocolate contains a stimulant other than caffeine. It is called ‘theobromine.’ It is this compound that makes chocolate poisonous for dogs. Theobromine, which gives chocolate its bitter flavour, also causes sweating if you eat a lot, and can be fatal for dogs even though dogs like the sweetness. One chocolate bar will make an average dog sick; more can be deadly.
Life by Chocolate
Chocolate is good for you. The problem is the sugar it’s mixed with to offset the bitter taste. If you like dark chocolate, it can make a rich snack with some health benefits. If you want the heart health benefits of chocolate, a couple of cocoa pills a day might keep the doctor away.
