The Rules of Chocolate

[Raineyrocks]

The Rules of Chocolate

If you get melted chocolate all over your hands, you're eating it too slowly.

Chocolate covered raisins, cherries, orange slices and strawberries all count as fruit, so eat as many as you want.

The problem: How to get two pounds of chocolate home from the store in a hot car.
The solution: Eat it in the parking lot.

Diet tip: Eat a chocolate bar before each meal.
It'll take the edge off your appetite and you'll eat less.

A nice box of chocolates can provide your total daily intake of calories in one place. Isn't that handy?

If you can't eat all your chocolate, it will keep in the freezer. But if you can't eat all your chocolate, what's wrong with you?

If calories are an issue, store your chocolate on top of the fridge. Calories are afraid of heights, and they will jump out of the chocolate to protect themselves.

Money talks. Chocolate sings.

Chocolate has many preservatives. Preservatives make you look younger.

Why is there no such organization as Chocoholics Anonymous?
Because no one wants to quit.

Put "eat chocolate" at the top of your list of things to do today. That way, at least you'll get one thing done.

Chocolate is a health food. Chocolate is derived from cacao beans. Bean = vegetable. Sugar is derived either from sugar beets or cane, both vegetables. And, of course, the milk/cream is dairy. So eat more chocolate to meet the dietary requirements for daily vegetable and dairy intake.

[kola]

american chocolate sux...its mostly sugar, little cocoa...and other gunk and funk.

try some REAL belgian chocolate. it satsifies you...clean and smooth,

u eat less and enjoy it more.

i love chocolate.

[Raineyrocks]

american chocolate sux...its mostly sugar, little cocoa...and other gunk and funk.

try some REAL belgian chocolate. it satsifies you...clean and smooth,

u eat less and enjoy it more.

i love chocolate.

I've tried Belgian chocolate before, yum!   My favorite is white chocolate, geesh my butt feels bigger already just thinking about it!
I like carob powder, dates, and vanilla mixed in the food processor, I'm pretty sure that's the "raw food" recipe. 

This isn't chocolate but have you ever put an avocado, 2 tsps of orange juice and some minced garlic in the blender?  It may sound gross but it is very good.

[Caleb]

If you get melted chocolate all over your hands, you're eating it too slowly.

At the risk of being called a chocolate snob ... if you are eating your chocolate quickly, you are either eating it wrong or eating the wrong type (milk chocolate instead of the proper dark chocolate)

Why is there no such organization as Chocoholics Anonymous?
Because no one wants to quit.

This one reminds me of a funny Onion editorial:  "I'm Like a Chocoholic -- But for Booze" 

Chocolate is a health food. Chocolate is derived from cacao beans. Bean = vegetable. Sugar is derived either from sugar beets or cane, both vegetables. And, of course, the milk/cream is dairy. So eat more chocolate to meet the dietary requirements for daily vegetable and dairy intake.

Chocolate is very good for you. But once again ... dark chocolate people. dark chocolate. milk chocolate is for sissies and girly men.  Milk chocolate just doesn't have enough of the cocoa to be beneficial with all the sugar and other stuff.

[ny2nh]

I gave up chocolate for Lent - and with the exception of some birthday cake a couple of weeks ago - I have not had chocolate since Mardi Gras. I am so having some chocolate today! Dark chocolate is actually good for you - although I don't remember why - but there is something in it that actually is good for you. And it's my favorite!

This isn't chocolate but have you ever put an avocado, 2 tsps of orange juice and some minced garlic in the blender?  It may sound gross but it is very good.

That would be guacamole. You can make it a million ways....and it's good almost always. Yum!

Happy Easter...and happy chocolate eating!!

[Raineyrocks]

   Here's some of the reasons


Dark Chocolate Is Healthy Chocolate
Dark Chocolate Has Health Benefits Not Seen in Other Varieties
By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Medical News

Aug. 27, 2003 -- Got high blood pressure? Try a truffle. Worried about heart disease? Buy a bon-bon.

It's the best medical news in ages. Studies in two prestigious scientific journals say dark chocolate -- but not white chocolate or milk chocolate -- is good for you.

DOCTOR recommended reading
Romance and Chocolate

From the WebMD community

How often do you say, "I love you," to your partner? Everyday... several times a day... my husband likes to hear it and he doesn't let me go to bed until I've said it even if we're fighting. – Katelya


Dark Chocolate Lowers Blood Pressure

Dark chocolate -- not white chocolate -- lowers high blood pressure, say Dirk Taubert, MD, PhD, and colleagues at the University of Cologne, Germany. Their report appears in the Aug. 27 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

But that's no license to go on a chocolate binge. Eating more dark chocolate can help lower blood pressure -- if you've reached a certain age and have mild high blood pressure, say the researchers. But you have to balance the extra calories by eating less of other things.


Antioxidants in Dark Chocolate

Dark chocolate -- but not milk chocolate or dark chocolate eaten with milk -- is a potent antioxidant, report Mauro Serafini, PhD, of Italy's National Institute for Food and Nutrition Research in Rome, and colleagues. Their report appears in the Aug. 28 issue of Nature. Antioxidants gobble up free radicals, destructive molecules that are implicated in heart disease and other ailments.

"Our findings indicate that milk may interfere with the absorption of antioxidants from chocolate ... and may therefore negate the potential health benefits that can be derived from eating moderate amounts of dark chocolate."

Translation: Say "Dark, please," when ordering at the chocolate counter. Don't even think of washing it down with milk. And if health is your excuse for eating chocolate, remember the word "moderate" as you nibble.


The Studies

Taubert's team signed up six men and seven women aged 55-64. All had just been diagnosed with mild high blood pressure -- on average, systolic blood pressure (the top number) of 153 and diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number) of 84.

Every day for two weeks, they ate a 100-gram candy bar and were asked to balance its 480 calories by not eating other foods similar in nutrients and calories. Half the patients got dark chocolate and half got white chocolate.

Those who ate dark chocolate had a significant drop in blood pressure (by an average of 5 points for systolic and an average of 2 points for diastolic blood pressure). Those who ate white chocolate did not.

In the second study, Serafini's team signed up seven healthy women and five healthy men aged 25-35. On different days they each ate 100 grams of dark chocolate by itself, 100 grams of dark chocolate with a small glass of whole milk, or 200 grams of milk chocolate.

An hour later, those who ate dark chocolate alone had the most total antioxidants in their blood. And they had higher levels of epicatechin, a particularly healthy compound found in chocolate. The milk chocolate eaters had the lowest epicatechin levels of all.

[dalebert]

Chocolate is very good for you. But once again ... dark chocolate people. dark chocolate. milk chocolate is for sissies and girly men.  Milk chocolate just doesn't have enough of the cocoa to be beneficial with all the sugar and other stuff.

The parts that are good for you are also the parts that give it the bitter taste. They remove those to make milk chocolate which is why it doesn't have that bitter taste. I think they're called cannabinoids. No, wait. That's not it. But they have a funny name like that and I can't remember it exactly right now. It'll prolly come to me later. You need about one large bite of dark chocolate a day to get all the benefit. Anything beyond that is not going to increase the benefit as you've gotten as much as your body can make use of in a day. There was a cool 20/20 episode about chocolate a while back. Chocolate also has magnesium which is often linked to the cravings. If you're really craving chocolate a lot, trying increasing your natural grains intake like whole grain bread. Not sure if most grocery store bread will do it because they strip all the healthy parts of the grain away so it won't spoil- yes, even the whole grain which is mostly just white bread with some of the chafe put back for fiber. There seems to be a trend of stripping all the healthy parts of things out! I make my own bread from freshly milled grain. I mill it right before I bake with it.

[TackleTheWorld]

mostly sugar, little cocoa...and other gunk and funk.

Sugar, cocoa, gunk & funk, mmmm.

[Caleb]

When I first started this vegetarian diet, I consoled myself, "Well, at least I can have all the chocolate I want."

But I found that I started to crave chocolate much less. So honestly I don't eat as much of it as I used to. Maybe that's because of the whole grain bread. who knows?

I also know that chocolate isn't a bad source of calcium.

[kola]

mostly sugar, little cocoa...and other gunk and funk.

Sugar, cocoa, gunk & funk, mmmm.

FDA approved funk and gunk. 

 

[Raineyrocks]

When I first started this vegetarian diet, I consoled myself, "Well, at least I can have all the chocolate I want."

But I found that I started to crave chocolate much less. So honestly I don't eat as much of it as I used to. Maybe that's because of the whole grain bread. who knows?

I also know that chocolate isn't a bad source of calcium.

Chocolate is a good source of calcium, this is the best news I've read in ages!  I feel my bones getting brittle so I'm going to go eat my Easter bunny!

[Caleb]

dark chocolate, rainey! the bunny is almost certainly milk chocolate, and is probably mainly just a bunch of flavored sugar

[ny2nh]

All this chocolate talk made me want chocolate even more! I made a dark chocolate cake - from scratch - which is a first for me! As soon as it cools, I'll top it with cream cheese frosting.....mmmmm...can't wait until after dinner!

[Raineyrocks]

dark chocolate, rainey! the bunny is almost certainly milk chocolate, and is probably mainly just a bunch of flavored sugar

La, la, la, I can't hear what your writing Caleb!   My bunny is very full of calcium and is good for me no matter what color it is.

[kola]

male or female bunny?