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Facts about Chocolate
By Dawn Montgomery | June 1, 2009
Today’s brain fluff comes to us courtesy of that delectable food group *WEG* chocolate.
Since I’m currently working on a title for the Changeling series, Sex and Chocolate, I’ve had this decadence on my mind.
So, without any further ado, here are a few facts you may or may not have known about chocolate:
White chocolate is not a chocolate at all. It is actually made of confectioner’s sugar, cocoa butter, and milk solids. While it does come from the cacao bean (via cocoa butter), it doesn’t contain cacao solids so is not recognized by the FDA as an actual “chocolate.” As a matter of fact, a majority of the ivory white chocolate you can purchase today on your grocer’s shelves do not contain cocoa butter at all.
You can tell the difference between true white “chocolate” and the imitation in two ways. True white chocolate is ivory in color and consistency and has that cocoa butter taste. The imitation has vegetable extracts and animal fat (look at the ingredients!) and is almost tasteless in comparison.
Cacao beans were used as currency for the Mayans and Aztecs. It was also considered an aphrodisiac and only the richest of their people could afford to drink the bitter chocolate brews they concocted.
In 1960, Hershey’s chocolate syrup was what Alfred Hitchcock used as blood in the now infamous shower scene in the movie, Psycho.
Chocolate can be lethal to dogs. Theobromine, an ingredient that stimulates the cardiac muscle and the central nervous system, causes chocolate’s toxicity. About two ounces of milk chocolate can be poisonous for a 10-lb puppy. Dark chocolate takes even less. Keep that in mind around small kids who like to “share” their goodies.
For many years it was thought that chocolate was bad for your health. It has been proven, however, that dark chocolate can actually benefit the body. This dark decadence has the highest antioxidant content of any other food. Good to know. 
Dark Chocolate is also a mild stimulant (to help a bit with concentration). This effect is actually increased in horses, so it is forbidden in horse racing.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s edition of Brain Fluff! And now back to my Dove dark chocolate and Reese’s PB minatures.
Topics: Brain Fluff, Dawn Montgomery | No Comments »