Dark Chocolate Love: The Actual Benefits

 * Dark Chocolate & Heart Boxes * 
...and certainly, TRUE Love not Fake ...

1. Studies show that compared to milk chocolate eaters, those who prefer dark chocolate eat 15 percent fewer calories and report feeling fewer cravings for sweet, salty and fatty foods.

2. Fact: Dark chocolate contains a unique natural substance that creates a sense of euphoria - satisfied and happy, one is less likely to binge.

3. Fact: It contains magnesium, a mineral that can help alleviate PMS symptoms - including cramps, water retention, fatigue, depression and irritability.

4. Fact: It contains the same type of antioxidants found in red wine and tea, which have been shown to boost brain activity.

5. Fact: Dark chocolate has been shown to correct imbalances in the body related to stress and can significantly reduce levels of stress hormones !

6. Dark chocolate has the perfect caffeine kick. One ounce of 70 percent dark chocolate contains about 40 mg of caffeine, compared to 200 mg in 8 ounces of brewed coffee and 120 mg in strong black tea.

7. More Fact: the antioxidants in cocoa trigger the walls of your blood vessels to relax, lowering blood pressure and improving circulation. This means better delivery of oxygen and nutrients to every cell.

8. Chocolate's protective natural substances also help prevent cholesterol from sticking to artery walls, reducing the risk of heart attack and stroke.

9. Studies show that Heart Attack survivors who ate chocolate just twice a week over a two-year period cut their risk of dying from heart disease by 3X.

10. The type of saturated fat in dark chocolate isn't the same as the artery-clogging saturated fat found in a lot of "healthy" stuff like whole milk ! It's a unique variety called stearic acid, much of which gets converted in the body to oleic acid, a heart-healthy monounsaturated fatty acid.

So: the key is, of course, Moderation !! Hello :)

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A History of Chocolate: In Brief - Part I

The Tree:

"Theobroma Cacao"

from the Greek (theos) Broma (beverage)

Re-named after the New World name of "Cacao" or "Chocolate" Tree, by the Swedish botanist Linnaeus: inventor of the binomial system of classification for all living things.  He believed it deserved a name reflecting the Mayan belief that the tree belonged to the Gods.

The Olmec:

One of the earliest Meso-American civilizations was known as the Olmec. Three thousand years ago the Olmec people occupied and area of tropical forests south of modern day Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico.

In recent times the vocabulary of the Olmecs was analyzed by linguistic experts and the word 'cacao' was surprisingly discovered as part of the language!  It takes hot, humid and shady conditions for the cacao tree to strive & this was the exact climate of this particular region.  So leading many Historians to believe that the first civilization to actually cultivate the cacao tree,"theobroma cacao", was infact the Olmecs and NOT the Aztecs, as had always been believed.

The Maya:

Several centuries after the demise of the Olmecs, around the fourth century AD, the Maya had established themselves Central America - in a large region just south of present day Mexico.  Stretching from Yucatan peninsula across to the Chiapas and the Pacific Coast of Guatemala.  A perfect climate for the cacao tree to flourish in the humidity and tropical forest shade.  Fascinated & awestruck by the cacao trees, the Mayans named it "cacahuaquchtl" which simply means: tree.  They found spiritual insight in the trees and believed the trees belonged to the Gods and that the pods growing from it's trunk were an offering from God to man.

It was a time of great artistic, intellectual and spiritual developement during the period around AD 300 - known as the 'classic Mayan Civilization'.  Drawing and designs of cacao pods were carved into the walls of magnificent stone palaces & temples built by the Mayans at this time, the images depicting the symbol of life and fertility for them.  The Mayans were gifted astronomers & mathematicians and had devised extremely accurate "calendars" as well as a system of hieroglyphics to keep records written on fragile sheets of bark paper.  They are known as 'people of the book'.  Today only four of these mind-boggling wonders of History have survived from the post-classic period of ages ago!  The "books" depict drawings of their 'God' performing various religious rituals in which cacao pods are frequently pictured with text often referring to cacao as the Gods' food.

* The End - Part One *

**Disclaimer: I write all my posts, they are not copied and/or pasted :)