Chocolate: The Good and the Bad

For my botany class this quarter, I had to do a research project on a plant of my choosing. Being a chocoholic, it seemed natural to go with Theobroma cacao, the chocolate plant - Theobroma translates to "food of the gods," and cacao is what the plant was called by Mesoamericans. The history of chocolate is fascinating* (the Aztecs used cacao beans as currency and valued it more than gold!), but I was much more interested in the health benefits.

The Good

Chocolate has all sorts of chemical constituents that make it a wonder food. All of the good stuff is found in larger quantities in dark chocolate than in milk chocolate, and it's found in even larger quantities in cocoa nibs (roasted cocoa beans that have been shelled but haven't had anything added to them).

-It is the best source for theobromine, a natural stimulant similar to caffeine (which chocolate also contains in small amounts) that has also been shown to be one of the best naturally occurring cough suppressants.

-It contains Phenylethylamine, a chemical that occurs naturally in humans that seems to be responsible for people falling in love, and it is present during orgasm. It can also relieve depression without any negative side effects.

- It has large quantites antioxidants, chemicals that help to prevent cancer.

- It contains anandamide, which has a role in short-term memory (I'm totally eating chocolate while cramming for exams from now on!) and is necessary for implantation of embryos.

- Tryptophan, an essential amino acid (which means it's not produced by the body so must be eaten), is found in chocolate. It is the rate-limiting factor in the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter important for relaxation. (It's the same chemical responsible for the food coma you get after eating a huge turkey dinner)

- It's a great source for magnesium, which assists in the absorption of calcium. It also turns out that magnesium deficiency makes PMS worse, so the chocolate cravings that women get are perfectly reasonable, and we should pay attention!

The Bad

Unfortunately, there is a dark side to chocolate. Most commercially produced chocolate is tainted with child slavery. The Ivory Coast is the largest producer of cocoa beans in the world, and slave trade in boys is rampant there. They are either kidnapped or sold for absurdly small amounts. They are forced to work under harsh conditions, are beaten regularly, and are only given enough food to survive. Because they are so inexpensive, they are viewed by the plantation owners as completely expendable. What makes this even more appalling is that chocolate manufacturers know that it's happening, but aren't doing anything to stop the problem. A common excuse is that because beans from plantations that use slave labor are mixed with beans from plantations that don't use slave labor, they can't determine whether what they're buying is slave-free or not. What they are really saying is that they don't want to make the effort and expense to ensure that they are buying beans from good plantations. Unfortunately, this includes all the manufacturers of the most popular candy in the US.

Fortunately, we do have options. Your best bet is to look for the Fair Trade symbol on your chocolate (you should do that for coffee, as well). Fair trade means that the plantations they are buying from guarantee their workers a living wage and decent working conditions. My personal favorite fair trade chocolate comes from Theo Chocolate, a local Seattle company. They are the only organic, fair trade bean-to-bar chocolate factory in the US. For more information on chocolate slavery, and for a great list of chocolate companies that produce slave free chocolate, check out http://vision.ucsd.edu/~kbranson/stopchocolateslavery/.

*A wonderful, well written, and beautiful book with tons of info on the history, and the preparation of chocolate is The New Taste of Chocolate: A Cultural and Natural History of Cacao with recipes by Maricel E. Presilla

For more info on the chocolate in general, check out http://chocolate.org/

My Favorite Drug

The following post was a response to a question posed in a friend's blog. My friend is Mormon, and she asked about whether her readers (most of whom, presumably, are also Mormon) drink coffee, which is verboten in their religion. She also asked about how "evil" it really is.

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I am not Mormon, and I don't base my actions on the words of profits, though I do recognize that there is often a great deal of wisdom in what they said. Personal wisdom comes, in part, from understanding the reasons behind rules that we are given. Once we know the reason, we can choose for ourselves whether or not the rules are just and should be obeyed.

I am a caffeine addict. At the end of March I'll be one year "sober." I had to quit drinking all caffeine because of the havoc it wreaked on my stomach. I used to drink copious amounts of coffee, tea, and soda. I still crave it at times, and I have even had dreams of drinking Dr. Pepper.

That being said, caffeine simply isn't good for you. From a Chinese Medicine standpoint, caffeine is the equivalent of a credit card (where you're talking about qi/energy instead of money). It creates false energy, borrowing from resources that you don't have, leading to exhaustion. As caffeine use increases, it becomes harder and harder to stop because you have smaller and smaller quantities of your own natural resources to draw from. Ultimately, this will lead to health problems that can range from fatigue to much more serious conditions.

I had several signs that came from divine origin (a story for another day) that indicated quite clearly that I needed to stop drinking caffeine. I chose to ignore the signs, and my health took a nosedive. I didn't follow a directive from my Goddess, and that made me less faithful. That doesn't mean that I stopped having faith and belief. It doesn't mean that I didn't strive to do my Goddess's will in other aspects of my life. It simply means that I wasn't living up to my full potential as a religious person.

In life and in religion, there are big rules and small rules. The big rules tend to be easier to follow - don't kill people, don't steal things, etc. The little rules are easy to bend because the effects and the consequences aren't as noticeable, and it's easier to justify them. Murdering someone is wrong, plain and simple. Drinking coffee... wellll... that's just not as clear. I would go so far as to say that from a moral standpoint, it isn't wrong; it's just a bad idea.

The problem with ignoring small rules - especially when dealing with religion - is that it becomes easier to ignore other, bigger rules. I know that when I don't act on what the Goddess says in one area, a lot of other things tend to slip, and it takes a lot of effort to get back on track.

The other thing that I try to always keep in mind is that if the reasoning behind a rule is sound (which, if it's coming from a deity, it's pretty safe to assume that it will be), then following it will ultimately make your life easier. Yes, it sure is convenient to have a nice, hot, grande soy no-whip white mocha in the morning to wake you up, but in the long run, there will be consequences. If you're lucky, they won't be as serious as mine, but there are, of course, no guarantees. Coffee won't keep me from heaven, but it can make life miserable.