fun chocolate facts
Eat Chocolate, Slow Down Aging Process
May 23, 2014
Going grocery shopping? Make sure you add chocolates to your shopping list. Why? I said it a million times, it acts like serotonin in your brain -- it makes you happy! On top of that, the catechins in chocolate help keep wrinkles away.
See to it that you buy dark chocolate with at least 85% cacao, though. Otherwise, the sugars undo what chocolate does. You body may be older than you would like it to be, however you can still do something to slow down the aging process. Here are some tips to heed:
Chocolate Cravings Explained
April 4, 2014
Chocolate is one of the world’s favorite things. It’s way beyond just a treat. It’s unimaginable, even, to know there’s chocolate in the pantry and just ignore it. Why can’t we just resist its allure? Why can’t we do without it? The psychology behind these intense chocolate cravings is becoming more and more controversial a topic for researchers.
Dr. Amy Jo Stavnezer, a professor of psychology and neuroscience, can give some explanation for the existence of such cravings. “The experience of eating chocolate releases dopamine in particular brain regions. That same dopamine is released during sex, laughter and other activities that are enjoyable. Moreover, the frontal lobe creates a memory of this experience, so whenever people think of chocolate, the brain craves for that same experience again.”, she says.
Basking In The Awesome Chocolate
November 8, 2013
Below are the reasons why you should always save some space for chocolate on your plate.
- Chocolate is good for your heart.
Daily consumption of chocolate may cut down one’s risk of suffering from a heart attack and even stroke.
- Chocolate can help you shed some unwanted pounds.
People have this notion that chocolate makes you fat. It’s not always the case. Research has shown that a person who gets his chocolate fix on a regular basis is more likely to be slim than one who doesn’t. Turns out, a person who eats chocolate five times per week or more has a lower BMI (Body Mass Index) than those who eat chocolate less frequently.
Dark Chocolate – The Dessert of the Modern Age
November 1, 2013
Want something to balance the savory taste of your meal? Choose dark chocolate. Even a little can do the trick, that’s why it’s the go-to dessert of a lot of people leaning towards a healthy lifestyle.
Here are a few ways you can savor dark chocolate:
1. Make it you workday treat!
In the middle of a particularly demanding day, take a break, and much on some dark chocolate. It will melt away stress as it melts in your mouth.
2. Make it a staple in your relaxing ritual.
"Me time" is not complete without your heartwarming comfort food. Cap off the experience with some dark chocolate in hand.
Chocolate is America’s Halloween Candy Preference
October 25, 2013
The most loved among Halloween goodies include: candy corn, gummy candy, chewy candy, hard candy, lollipops, licorice, and gum and mints.
But, according to a recent survey, chocolate remains the most liked treat for this coming Halloween. The survey also revealed that adults plan on getting a mix of both chocolate and candy for the ghosts and goblins who darken their doorsteps on Halloween evening.
“Individual buying and consumption habits aside, there’s no denying the role that candy of all kinds plays in this All-American holiday tradition – and that’s something even the grumpiest gremlin can celebrate.”, said NCA Vice President of Communications Susan Whiteside.
Chocolate From Back Then
July 5, 2013
For the love of chocolate, myriads of studies and research were done just to trace back its history. While it’s nice to just enjoy your chocolate, it wouldn’t hurt to know how it made people from back then just as happy as we are now because of it.
Credits must be given to Fathers, specifically Dominicans, for having the Spanish appreciate chocolate. In 1544, they lured the court by preparing chocolate which was presented by a Kekchi Maya delegation of New World natives.
Because of faith, chocolate spread, making new regions of the world appreciate it. Europeans started to love it, so they used chocolate in Christian celebrations. They used chocolate to sustain different aspects of their lives, including physical, economic, as well as spiritual.
Mood-enhancing Dark Chocolate
May 24, 2013
A recently published study in Australia claimed that dark chocolate enhances one’s mood by means of boosting calmness and feelings of contentment. How is this possible? It’s all in the polyphenols that cocoa is known to be rich in.
Polyphenols are naturally found in plants and are a basic element of the human diet. Such compounds are proven to lessen oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is linked to a lot of diseases. Also, polyphenols are said to have outstanding psychological effects.
“Anecdotally, chocolate is often linked to mood enhancement,” Matthew Pase, a PhD candidate at the University of Swineburne in Melbourne and lead author of the study, claims. “This clinical trial is perhaps the first to scientifically demonstrate the positive effects of cocoa polyphenols on mood.”
Chocolate Makes People Smarter
May 3, 2013
Chemical addictions, as we all know, have a tendency to be destructive. It really is quite scary. Fortunately most people have less damaging "addictions" in life. It’s no secret that a bulk of the world’s population enjoys a bit of chocolate, at least every now and then.
Statistics have shown that the average American consumes around 11 pounds of chocolate annually (depending on whose numbers you look at).
Chocolate may not be a life essential. It’s not as though it would be the death of somebody if chocolate just disappeared from the face of the earth. However, if you took it away, one of the biggest and yummiest pleasures you can get on the planet Earth would also be extinct. And maybe a powerful brain food would be done too!
Quite interesting, a study last year in the New England Journal of Medicine displayed how chocolate not only tastes good, but it also has the power to make a person kind of smarter. Something like that.
According to an article with the title "Chocolate Consumption, Cognitive function, and Nobel Laureates," the majority of Nobel Prize winners come from countries that prove to have high consumption of chocolate.
For instance, Switzerland has about three times the number of Nobel Prize winners per capita, while the people in their lands eat twice as much chocolate on an annual basis.
According to the graph below (which I found in an article at Scientific American) showing a plot of chocolate consumption in kilograms versus the number of Nobel Prizes per country, there is a strong correlation of 0.79. (Sweden appears to be the biggest anomaly. If you take it out, the correlation jumps to 0.86.)
Pretty cool! Perhaps this shows that when an entire country is "addicted" to chocolate, big things can happen.
How To Fully Enjoy Your Chocolate
April 5, 2013
"Mindful eating goes beyond eating," said Lilian Cheung, a registered dietitian, co-author of Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life, and director of health promotion and communication at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts.
You can easily be more mindful if you opt for high-quality chocolate and check the label before buying. You can get an instant idea regarding the sweetness or bitterness of chocolate by understanding the chocolate to sugar ratio.
"If you buy chocolate with a higher cocoa content, it will be less sweet," said Stephen Durfee, a pastry chef instructor at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, in St. Helena, California. "You will get more of the natural flavor of chocolate."
Chocolate Facts You Want To Know
February 15, 2013
Always be choosy with the chocolate you eat. Chocolate is known to be packed with nutrients, but to be able to get its substantial benefits, we must know what we're eating.
Chocolates that have at least 70% cocoa are the best ones, considering the higher the cocoa content, the more nutritious. Your chocolate is also better off non- or lightly alkalized or non-dutched. While milk and white chocolate are head-tilting good, they don’t offer as much healthy flavanols as dark chocolate does.
If you’re not a fan of dark chocolate, fret not. It's actually an acquired taste, and you can develop it by slowly increasing percentage of cocoa in the chocolates you eat. As a matter of fact, there are milk chocolates with 50 percent cocoa or more available in the market now.
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