News tagged with chocolate
Chemical fingerprinting tracks the travels of little brown bats
They're tiny creatures with glossy, chocolate-brown hair, out-sized ears and wings. They gobble mosquitoes and other insect pests during the summer and hibernate in caves and mines when the weather turns cold. They are little ...
11 hours ago |
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Study shows chocolate reduces blood pressure and risk of heart disease
Easter eggs and other chocolate may be good for you - at least in small quantities and preferably if it's dark chocolate - according to research that shows just one small square of chocolate a day can lower ...
Mar 30, 2010 |
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Chocolate rich in flavanols may protect the skin from UV
(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study has discovered for the first time that dark chocolate rich in flavanols may provide significant protection from the harmful effects of ultraviolet light.
Nov 06, 2009 |
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Scientists unveil chocolate-fueled race car
(AP) -- Scientists unveiled on Tuesday what they hope will be one of the world's fastest biofuel vehicles, powered by waste from chocolate factories and made partly from plant fibers.
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
May 05, 2009 |
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Ford's new chocolate-inspired plastic, made with air bubbles
(PhysOrg.com) -- Plastic is often used in vehicles, when the designs demand a lower weight on the vehicle, in order to increase vehicle speed or fuel efficiency. Current plastics only meet those goals to a ...
Apr 08, 2011 |
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Shared flavor compounds show up on US menus, rare in Asian cuisines
North Americans and Western Europeans love a good mix of alpha-terpineol, 4-methylpentanoic acid and ethyl propionate for dinner, flavor compounds shared in popular ingredients like tomatoes, parmesan cheese ...
Dec 15, 2011 |
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Researchers: It is possible to get sick of chocolate
They say that laughter is the best medicine, but some people might endorse chocolate instead. The dark variety has been shown to reduce blood pressure better than a placebo. Scientists credit the flavanols in dark chocolate ...
Aug 17, 2010 |
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'Food of the gods' genome sequence could make finest chocolate better
The production of high quality chocolate, and the farmers who grow it, will benefit from the recent sequencing and assembly of the chocolate tree genome, according to an international team led by Claire Lanaud ...
Dec 26, 2010 |
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People with depression eat more chocolate, a mood food
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found that women and men eat more chocolate as depressive symptoms increase, suggesting an association between mood and chocolate.
Apr 26, 2010 |
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How dark chocolate may guard against brain injury from stroke
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered that a compound in dark chocolate may protect the brain after a stroke by increasing cellular signals already known to shield nerve cells from damage.
May 05, 2010 |
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Chocolate cuts death rate in heart attack survivors: study
Heart attack survivors who eat chocolate two or more times per week cut their risk of dying from heart disease about threefold compared to those who never touch the stuff, scientists have reported.
Medicine & Health / Medical research
Aug 13, 2009 |
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Eating sweets every day in childhood 'increases adult aggression'
Children who eat sweets and chocolate every day are more likely to be violent as adults, according to new research.
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Oct 01, 2009 |
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Chocolate, water reduce pain response to heat
People often eat food to feel better, but researchers have found that eating chocolate or drinking water can blunt pain, reducing a rat's response to a hot stimulus. This natural form of pain relief may help ...
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Oct 13, 2009 |
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New evidence that dark chocolate helps ease emotional stress
The "chocolate cure" for emotional stress is getting new support from a clinical trial published online in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research.
Nov 11, 2009 |
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Why certain flavor combinations melt in your mouth
Do all cuisines thrive on kindred flavors? New research suggests that some cuisines may be based on combinations of dissimilar ingredients, but critics say the work is not filtering out flavors that may be ...
Dec 26, 2011 |
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Chocolate
Chocolate (pronounced /ˈtʃɒklət/ (help·info) or /-ˈələt/) comprises a number of raw and processed foods produced from the seed of the tropical cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America, with its earliest documented use around 1100 BC. The majority of the Mesoamerican peoples made chocolate beverages, including the Aztecs and the Maya, who made it into a beverage known as xocolātl, a Nahuatl word meaning "bitter water". The seeds of the cacao tree have an intense bitter taste, and must be fermented to develop the flavor.
After fermentation, the beans are dried, cleaned, and roasted, and the shell is removed to produce cacao nibs. The nibs are then ground and liquified, resulting in pure chocolate in fluid form: chocolate liquor. The liquor can be further processed into two components: cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Pure, unsweetened chocolate contains primarily cocoa solids and cocoa butter in varying proportions. Much of the chocolate consumed today is in the form of sweet chocolate, combining chocolate with sugar. Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate that additionally contains milk powder or condensed milk. "White chocolate" contains cocoa butter, sugar, and milk but no cocoa solids (and thus does not qualify to be considered true chocolate).
Chocolate contains alkaloids such as theobromine and phenethylamine, which have physiological effects on the body. It has been linked to serotonin levels in the brain. Scientists claim that chocolate, eaten in moderation, can lower blood pressure. Dark chocolate has recently been promoted for its health benefits, including a substantial amount of antioxidants that reduce the formation of free radicals, though the presence of theobromine renders it toxic to some animals, such as dogs and cats.
Chocolate has become one of the most popular flavors in the world. Gifts of chocolate molded into different shapes have become traditional on certain holidays: chocolate bunnies and eggs are popular on Easter, chocolate coins on Hanukkah, Santa Claus and other holiday symbols on Christmas, and hearts on Valentine's Day. Chocolate is also used in cold and hot beverages, to produce chocolate milk and hot chocolate.
For more information about Chocolate, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
