What's New with everyone's Favorite Food--Chocolate

It's traditional to give--and get--a box of chocolates on holidays, and one of those holidays is Mother's Day.  But traditions are changing, especially concerning what type of chocolate we choose, why we eat this high-calorie and high-fat food, how much we eat, and even how we go about eating  it (if we take the advice of experts). Let's discuss it all but begin with a brief history of this amazing and ever-so-satisfying concoction.

Chocolate Makes History after History Makes Chocolate

Thanks to National Geographic Traveler and other internet providers, we have these facts about the dark past and pleasant present of chocolate:

• Chocolate was first consumed by the Aztecs and the Mayans about 3,100 years ago.  They used the cacao plant to make a beer-like drink for celebrations. 

• In the 1500s, the Spanish explorers brought chocolate back to Europe.

•  The first chocolate factory in Switzerland was opened in 1819.

• The Swiss helped to develop the solid chocolate bar so popular today.

• Swiss chocolate became so celebrated because of methods developed by Nestlé and Lindt.

The Chocolate Industry--Changing to Cope with Challenging Times

A lengthy Chicago Tribune article brings us these statistics:  Chocolate is a huge business with $90 billion in global sales annually, $19 billion of it in the U.S. But there are hints of trouble ahead.  Scientists are predicting a cocoa bean shortage.  Rising sugar and manufacturing costs are making truffles and bonbons more expensive.  Furthermore, concerned about their dwindling bank accounts and their expanding waistlines, Americans are snacking on more fruit and fewer sweets. Here's what various companies are doing to deal with all this: 

• They're making candy bars smaller.  By the end of 2013, all of the Mars' chocolate brands will be smaller.  For example, Snickers and Dove bars will be sold in 250-calorie pieces or even less.

• They're producing sugar-free, gluten-free, and dairy-free chocolates to reach consumers with special needs.

• They're developing chocolate that's more resistant to melting. Cadbury (a British brand) has produced chocolate that is melt-resistant even at 104°F.

• They're decreasing wages, cutting costs, trying to increase farm production, and making new types of chocolate to differentiate themselves from competitors. 

• They're packaging chocolate for particular seasons rather than particular holidays so that there's less waste of candy packaged for a specific past occasion.  Therefore, you may have trouble finding a Mother's Day box of chocolates and will have to be satisfied with a box that touts spring.  The contents will taste just as good.

Chocolate's Growing List of Health Benefits

Have you had your nibble of chocolate yet today?  By now, you must have heard about the many health benefits to be derived from eating a small amount each day.  Dark chocolate (the darker, the better) is what's recommended; it has more cocoa (with those wonderful flavanols) and less sugar.  Those flat bars contain somewhere between 3 - 31/2 ounces of chocolate, and they're conveniently broken into squares.  If you eat one square per day, no one (not even your waistline) can accuse you of overdoing it, but that's enough to make a positive contribution to your health. An article in the Tufts University Health and Nutrition Letter says even 6.3 grams (.2 ounces), about 1/2 a square, has been shown to benefit the circulatory system.  The Harvard Women's Health Watch says about 1 ounce a day is a happy medium between getting the benefits without too many excess calories.   More studies keep reinforcing past conclusions and suggesting new benefits--such as those listed below--from consuming a tidbit of chocolate (or drinking a beverage made with cocoa powder) daily:

• lower blood pressure
• reduction of risk of heart attacks
• reduction of stroke risk
• reduction of bad cholesterol
• lower body mass index  (See this Shelf Life Advice article about people who eat chocolate being thinner than those that don't.)

But here's a benefit that surprised us: the Tufts article says, "Supplementation with a high-flavanol chocolate beverage was associated with improved function in areas of the brain associated with memory." 

And here's another brain-related surprise (mentioned in Consumer Reports on Health): In a recent study, "eating about 14 ounces of chocolate per person each year was linked to an increase in the number of Nobel Prize winners in each country."  Weird, huh?   

The Most Satisfying Way to Eat Chocolate

If you're like most people, the answer to the question, "How do you eat chocolate?" would be "Rapidly." Brmmmm. Wrong answer.

In the National Geographic Traveler article "How to Eat Chocolate, here's what an expert employee of a Swiss chocolate factory says, "Seeing and smelling the chocolate are essential to truly tasting it."  But sadly, she reveals, most people diminish the joy by just popping it into their mouths. 

I'm convinced that the way to savor chocolate is to resist chewing and just let it s-l-o-w-l-y melt in your mouth. Then you've prolonged the pleasure, and fool yourself into believing you've consumed more than you actually have. 

But the most important tip about eating chocolate is this:  "Gradually." On Mother's Day, give your mom, wife, mother-in-law, aunt(s), and/or sister(s) a box of dark chocolate and assure them all that it's a gift of good health--if they have the will power (in other words, won't power) to eat only one piece a day.  Remember, chocolate has a long shelf life.  It will continue to taste wonderful even if that box lasts for months.

Here's some good news for you from Consumer Reports Shopsmart magazine:  You can go into a Godiva store and get a FREE piece of Godiva chocolate every month  just by signing up for a Godiva rewards card.  (I think you need to sign up in the store.)

This article on Shelf Life Advice will tell you even more about chocolate: "Chocolate is even more Healthful Than You Thought."  Furthermore, if you put "chocolate, benefits" into the search box on the home page of this site, you'll reach links to more articles on this topic. 

Source(s):

digitalnomad.nationalgeographic.com "How to Eat Chocolate"

http://digitalnomad.nationalgeographic.com/2012/06/26/how-to-eat-chocolate/?utm_source=NatGeocom&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=travel_20130427&utmcampaign=Content

dailymail.co.uk,  "Chocolate invented 3,i00 years ago by the Aztecs - but they were trying to make beer"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-493335/Chocolate-invented-3-100-years-ago-Aztecs--trying-make-beer.html

Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter, "Dark Chocolate: A Valentine for Your Health," February 2013.

Consumer Reports Shopsmart, "Where to shop and save" May 2013.

Chicago Tribune, "Thinking outside the box: Makers of chocolates try to stop from melting under pressure of change," April 2, 2013.

Harvard Women's Health Watch, "Dark Chocolate," March 2013.

Consumer Reports on Health, "3 Quick Tips," January 2013.