If you’re a fan of chocolate, every occasion is right for this treat.
Feeling down? Eat some chocolate. Celebrating? Eat some more. Want to show your Valentine how special you think your sweetheart is? Offer up chocolate!People have been enjoying chocolate as a food, drink and medicine for thousands of years. The ancient Maya and Aztecs called chocolate kakaw and used it as medicine.
They also made chocolate offerings to their gods. Chocolate comes from the cacao (Kuh-KOW) tree, and its scientific name reflects its history. Theobroma cacao translates to “cacao, food of the gods.” These days, chocolate is not just for deities. The treat has become popular around the world.
It’s so popular, in fact, that people spend more than $90 billion on it each year. And that number just keeps growing.
People may eat chocolate because of its taste. And many adults justify that treat because they’ve heard it has health benefits. But chocolate’s popularity also has downsides. Scientists are scrambling to help farmers produce enough cacao to meet the growing demand for chocolate. One big challenge: Plant diseases threaten crop yields. So scientists are working hard to understand the cacao tree in hopes of protecting it.
Ancient treat
Cacao is a tropical tree.
And it’s unusual: Its fruits, called pods, grow directly on the tree trunk. Inside the pod’s citrusy flesh are large, brown seeds. They are what hold the starting material for one of the world’s tastiest treats.Those seeds, like the tree, are called cacao. After being harvested, they’re heaped in piles or poured into boxes to ferment. During this process, microbes break down the flesh. As they digest its sugars and other chemicals, they give off heat. That heat breaks down cells within the bean. This lets chemical reactions take place that produce the flavors we recognize in chocolate. After four to seven days, the seeds are laid in the sun to dry. Now they’re ready to be roasted and ground to make cocoa.
Cocoa is the basic ingredient in chocolate. When cocoa is mashed into a thick brown paste, it’s called chocolate liquor. Milk and dark chocolate both contain chocolate liquor. (Hardened cocoa liquor is also what chefs call unsweetened baking chocolate.) Cocoa butter is the fat in chocolate liquor. That fat can be separated out and used to make white chocolate. Chocolate candy also includes sugar, vanilla, lecithin and sometimes milk. (Lecithin is an emulsifier — a chemical that helps fatty and non-fatty ingredients stay smoothly mixed. That helps to stabilize the final product.)
The sweet confection we enjoy today is nothing like the original forms of cocoa. The Maya mixed cocoa, water and chili pepper to make a spicy, bitter drink. It wasn’t until Spanish explorers sent cocoa back to Europe that candy makers came up with our modern, sweet version.
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The ancient Maya and Aztec people also mixed cacao seeds with various herbs to make medicines. They used these to treat symptoms such as diarrhea, fever and cough. Cacao has a long history as a medicine — but scientists have only recently begun to investigate its benefits.
Cocoa for health
Cocoa contains antioxidants. These molecules stop chemical reactions that involve oxidation, which can damage the body’s cells. DNA — the molecule that gives instructions to each of our cells — is especially vulnerable. Damaged DNA can eventually lead to cancer. So antioxidants are an important part of our diet.
Many kinds of dark chocolate are high in antioxidants. Milk chocolate and white chocolate are not.
“Many research studies have shown that antioxidants protect DNA,” notes Astrid Nehlig. She is the director of research at the National Institute for Health and Medical Research in Strasbourg, France. Fruit, chocolate and coffee are all high in antioxidants. The DNA in people who consume a lot of these foods is less likely to break. And when it does, the body is more likely to repair it, Nehlig says.
Flavanols (FLAV-uh-nahls) are another important group of cocoa compounds. Arteries carry blood from the heart to organs and other tissues from head to foot. Flavanols can dilate — or widen — those arteries. That helps blood flow better, Nehlig explains. Many studies have shown that eating cocoa products can keep blood pressure low and help improve heart health, thanks in part to its flavanols.
In fact, improved blood flow seems to…
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