10 Fun Facts about Chocolate you might not know!
It’s International Chocolate day today! To celebrate we thought it appropriate to gather some interesting facts about our favourite sweet food!
So, here’s 10 fun facts you may not have known about chocolate!
Chocolate was once used as money
In Mayan times the Cocoa bean was used as currency, which may have worked then but, if the same rule existed now, I think we’d all be rather poor, with permanently chocolate stained mouths and slightly bigger beliefs.
Chocolate is a great source of antioxidants
Put aside your cranberry juice and grab yourself a healthy helping of dark chocolate – one of the highest scoring sources.
Dark chocolate improves blood flow
Chocolate can produce Nitric Oxide which sends signals to arteries to relax – lowering resistance to blood flow.
The chocolate chip cookie was invented by accident
Thank you Ruth Wakefield.
In 1930 Ruth realised she was out of Bakers chocolate, so broke pieces of Nestle chocolate in the dough hoping it would melt – it didn’t.
EUREKA! The chocolate chip cookie was born!
Ruth, actually sold her new creations to Nestle for a lifetime supply of chocolate. Can we blame her?
White chocolate isn’t chocolate.
It contains no cocoa solids or liquor, it does contain cocoa butter but it’s mostly just milk and sugar. Delish? Perhaps, but not healthy.
Chocolate makes you high…
It’s true, it gives you a mental high, releases endorphins and gets your heart pumping more than kissing would do!
(Depending on who the kisser is… Johnny Depp or Hershey’s, what do you think)?
Chocolate has its own melting point!
Ever noticed that chocolate melts on your tongue? Well it melts at 93 ℉, only just below our body temperature it’s almost as if it was meant to be…
One tree produces a lot of beans
Approximately 2,500 beans per tree, the beans are technically seeds. However if you put the ratio of beans to make chocolate alongside how many the tree produces, not a lot really. 400 beans make about 3 cups (1 pound) of chocolate.
Chocolate can improve brain function
It has been proven to improve the blood flow to the brain – it has also improved cognitive function in elderly people, it also includes caffeine.
Too much chocolate can kill you
Chocolate makes Theobromine (produced when the liver metabolises caffeine) it is a vasodilator and it can be poisonous in large doses.
You would have to eat about 6Kg of unsweetened dark chocolate or 40Kg of milk chocolate for it to actually kill you.
This is why it’s so poisonous for dogs to eat chocolate, they metabolise it more slowly, so it’s far more dangerous for them.
So, chocolate can be very good, as long as you don’t eat too much (or give it to your puppy)!
There’s also been some great books on chocolatey subjects. Check them out!
