Candles and candy dish with chocolate
There are, it appears, three kinds of people in this world: those who eat to live, those who live to eat, and those who live to eat chocolate.That third group of folks has found even more reason to live lately, now that chocolate has emerged as a new darling among health foods.
Dark chocolate -- which lacks the milk and much of the sugar added to milk chocolate, and must contain at least 35 percent ground cacao beans -- is rich in such minerals as zinc, magnesium and iron, as well as flavonoid antioxidants. Those are the substances identified in the class of nutritional superfoods that includes blueberries, green tea and red wine, which have been credited with providing protection against heart disease, stroke and some cancers. The greater the cacao content, the greater the health benefit. For many fans of the dark side, 70 percent is the ideal level.
It remains a dark horse in the candy stable, though. While its fan base is growing, dark chocolate still accounts for a fraction of the $27 billion Americans spend on candy every year.
Although sales of specific varieties are not closely tracked, those in the industry say we're learning to appreciate dark chocolate's distinct virtues.
'Anecdotally, certainly, I can tell you that the dark chocolate category increased somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 to 20 percent' in 2005, said Susan Fussell, senior director of communications for the National Confectioners Association.
And there's more good news: A weakness for chocolate no longer appears to bear the stigma of a human flaw.
'I think chocoholics are out of the closet, more than they used to be,' said Gale Gand, well-known restaurateur, pastry chef, author and television personality. 'There's a name for them, and it's nothing to be ashamed of.'
At Tru, the upscale Chicago restaurant Gand co-owns, there are typically seven items offered on the dessert tray on any given evening. Gand makes sure no fewer than four of them involve chocolate.
'It has to be at least half chocolate. That's how many chocolate lovers there are out there,' she said, pausing to chat about a relevant subject during an appearance at the Chocolate Festival hosted by NCO Youth and Family Services at Neuqua Valley High School last month.
The visceral pull of the sweet brown nectar is both universal and mysterious, even to people for whom it is a tool of trade.
'I think some of it's chemical, I really do,' said Gand, who noted that the attraction doesn't appear to hinge directly on the amount of cacao in the finished product. 'It's unexplainable, the craving people have for chocolate.'
For some, however, it's a matter of practical nutrition. Gand said she knows a very slender woman in Chicago who, for many years now, has made a point of consuming a small portion of dark chocolate daily.
'She said she eats it for her health,' said Gand, whose sixth cookbook, 'Chocolate and Vanilla,' is scheduled for release later this year.
Cathy Bouchard does the same thing. The owner of Le Chocolat Bar in Naperville is a huge believer in the healthful attributes of chocolate. She conducts seminars on the topic, typically winding up her comments by relating how she fought the devastating effects of fibromyalgia for many, many months using conventional medications.
Unable to muster the energy to get out much, Bouchard spent a lot of time reading during her illness. Her preference runs toward nonfiction, and she took an interest in works devoted to one of her favorite foods. Local book stores took to calling her 'the chocolate lady,' she said. As she consumed more and more written works, her interest grew.
'The references were always that it was used medicinally, it was a tonic, an elixir,' Bouchard said. 'Everything I ever read said that cacao is a drug, a natural antidepressant.'
A few weeks after she had been taking a daily dose of dark chocolate, first thing in the morning, she started to see real relief. Before long she ceased her other medications, reasoning it was a bad idea to duplicate her efforts. Eventually she told her doctor what she had done.
'She said, `Well you know, we're starting to read a lot of stuff about dark chocolate. I'm not going to say it's all in your mind. You obviously are doing great,'' Bouchard said.
***
HEALTHY GLOW
Chocolate: It's not just for breakfast anymore.
In addition to its better-known role as appeasement for a consuming passion, chocolate has topical applications. Golden Serenity Aesthetics and Wellness Center in Naperville offers an assortment of chocolate treatments that afford similar benefits to the conventional way of taking chocolate -- without the calories, the center's operators say.
Chocolate-based services include facials, body wraps, scrubs and foot treatments, and prices range from $75 to $110.
Golden Serenity is at 1288 Rickert Drive, Suite 202-207, Naperville. Call (630) 305-3350.
SWEET FACTOIDS
Some choco-tidbits you should know:
[] Chocolate is made from the cacao bean, which is the fruit of the cacao tree. Like many other fruits, it is a rich source of antioxidants, those substances that chase away free radicals and their attendant cancer risk.
[] Cornell University researchers found in 2003 that hot cocoa, made using a nearly pure form of unsweetened chocolate, provides nearly twice as much antioxidant protection from cancer and heart disease as red wine, and more than three times as much as green tea. A team of Dutch scientists reached the same conclusion.
[] The journey from bean to bar includes hand-picking of the cacao bean (which grows in only a small strip of the world near the equator, where the climate allows it); fermenting, grinding and mixing with sugar; and conching, a slow and extended churning of the ground mixture (which has become chocolate 'liquor') with an emulsifier, sweetener, fat and/or flavoring.
[] Chocolate is virtually nonperishable. It contains plentiful supplies of phenolic compounds, which act as natural pesticides that protect plants from insects and pathogens. The compounds remain active in foods after the harvest, and account for chocolate's extraordinary shelf longevity. Stored at around 70 degrees and tightly sealed, bittersweet chocolate will keep for years.
-- Sources: Associated Press, Cornell University, Pastry chef Gale Gand
***
[] Now that we've whet your appetite for chocolate, check out ethel's chocolate lounge on Thursday in Out & About.
-- Contact Susan Frick Carlman at scarlman@scn1.com or (630) 416-5260.
