Friday, February 23, 2007

Chocolate for Me

Drinking cocoa is supposed to boost blood flow to key areas of the brain for 2 to 3 hours. You know, as a low-fat vegetarian who verges on being vegan, I don’t eat chocolate, because of the milk and calories and cholesterol. But recently I had an idea: I bought an 8 oz box of Hershey’s Cocoa, naturally unsweetened. I put about a tablespoon of cocoa in a little bowl, add sugar, water, and put it in the microwave for a few seconds, just so the water and cocoa mix. That is how I take chocolate now, almost like a little cup of espresso. I think it is rather healthy for me. I’m not eating a candy bar; I’m just having some chocolate, which in and of itself is not unhealthy. It is what the candy manufacturers do to the chocolate that makes it unhealthy in my opinion. And of course it is what the consumers do – consuming too much, even of a good thing like chocolate – that leads to obesity, illness, etc.

While we’re on the subject of chocolate, some cocoa may help prevent heart disease. And apparently Mars products contain more healthy flavonols because of the way the cocoa is processed.


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3 comments:

Raggedy said...

Oh yummy. Pass the chocolate over here!
Have a wonderful day!
*^_^
(=':'=) hugs
(")_ (")Š from
the Cool Raggedy one

Ed Bremson, MFA said...

I do my chocolate a little different now than I used to do. Now I put about half a cup of water in the microwave for a minute. Then I add two tsp of sugar and two heaping tsp of cocoa, stir, mix, and drink.

Anonymous said...

There are all kinds of organic dark chocolates out now that are totally vegan and delicious. You might also want to avoid Hershey cocoa and go for a more organic brand, or better yet, just get some organic cacao nibs and chow down on them, you don't even need a microwave for that, and you can spread out your nibbles throughout the day instead of ingesting it all in one shot.