Being Chocoholic!
Chocolate is the world's age-old favourite dessert. But why do you love chocolates so much ???
There is no simple answer to this.
Here's why we love chocolates so much?
The chocolate we eat today has milk products, preservatives, modifiers, sugar, cocoa butter and most importantly, cocoa blended into it.
Cocoa is made from the extract of cacao beans. These beans come from a tropical tree called," Theobroma cacao", which means, " Food of God". These trees only grow near the equator countries like Brazil, Nigeria, Indonesia, Mexico, etc.
Today chocolate is eaten in different ways. There are 300 known substances in chocolate that cause a variety of reactions in the human body, because of which we love chocolate so much.
Chocolates weren't meant to be sweet. The earlier chocolate was consumed by ancient American civilisation, the Olmecs, Mayans and the Aztecs.
They would use the extract of the roasted cocao bean and would mix it with spices into a medical drink, called "xocolatl" or "bitter water". Only after Spanish colonizers took it to Europe, was sugar, cream, milk and cocoa butter added to it, to make it the sweet indulgence we know today.
This increased the glucose content in chocolate. Glucose is used in great quantity as energy by the central executive part of our brain allowing us to manage our daily hectic lives.
It contains Caffeine and Theobromine in less quantity, which makes us alert and awake.
Chocolate contains Flavonoid that reduces unhealthy cholesterol and improve blood flow and, thereby, brings down the risk of heart diseases.
Cocoa has a property that makes the human heart beat faster. Our brain has complex chemical reactions that affect our mood, one of these is, Anandamine ( derived from a Sanskrit word, "Anand"). When this is released in our brain we feel blissful.
This could be why we use chocolates to express LOVE.
Therefore, to all my readers, wish you a Happy Chocolate Day, and express your love and affection through chocolate on this day.
Do tell me about your chocolate love in the comment below.
Till then, Stay Safe. Stay Healthy!
~Ridhima Kaul
Thank you for sharing this. Indeed, cacao beans are quite popular for their health benefits. You can also check out CoBe Snacks' chocolate-covered bulk cocoa beans. They're an excellent healthy snack when those chocolate urges hit. One serving of the real deal contains both fiber and protein to help keep you satiated so you don't keep binging on processed sweets.
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