Candy Has Many Healthful Benefits - Research Supports And Explains Benefits Of Common Addiction

It's likely rare for people to attempt to hide their love and/or addiction to chocolate, as being an admitted "chocoholic" is so common and socially acceptable. Chocolate has come to represent many positive emotions and feelings... and this is not just due to modern marketing practices. History demonstrates a long-held reverence for "Theobroma Cacao".

Centuries ago, before chocolate became a sweet confection worthy of our loving, sensual indulgence it was pronounced to be a "food of the Gods"... a beverage with the power to strengthen armies. Like many of the primary ingredients of traditional popular candies, chocolate was revered for its medicinal qualities. The Mayans, Aztecs, and early Europeans whipped "cocao" into a frothy brew that they drank and recognized as a mild stimulant and nutrient rich protector of good health. They called it 'bitter water". Today, medical science recognizes chocolate (especially dark chocolate) as possessing strong antioxidants that protect the cardiovascular system. They credit it with the ability to prevent additional neural damage after a stroke and to improve mental outlook. The cocoa powder has more beneficial antioxidants than other chocolate products but, naturally, the processing and addition of sugar and other ingredients does decrease that content accordingly.

Scientists have identified substances in chocolate that make us feel better emotionally after eating it. This gives us the comfort of knowing it's not just our imagination that we "need" a 'chocolate fix' from time to time. Most reasonable diets recognize and recommend that as long as we adjust our other food intake, we can occasionally enjoy this now recognized beneficial food in reasonable quantities. And why not? Our ancestors weren't all privileged to enjoy the pleasure of chocolate. It was reserved for priests and the very wealthy members of the population. Milton Hershey, founder of Hershey's Candy proclaimed in an early ad that a Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar was "More sustaining than meat". In one report, the USDA pointed out that one ounce of chocolate covered almonds contains 2.66 grams of protein; 255 mg. of Calcium, small amounts of Vitamins A, C, and E, as well as a bit of Folate. Surely, this beloved snack doesn't deserve to be classified as "junk food".

In the United States, the chocolate industry accounts for 17 Billion Dollars in revenue. In addition to being a satisfying part of a healthy diet, cocoa is available as an investment in the commodities market. The cocoa tree is grown in developing countries as a replacement for illegal crops, and that is doing wonders for the economy of millions. There appears to be little reason not to love chocolate. And if one is to be afflicted by an addiction, the addiction to chocolate (sometimes described as a "guilty pleasure) would likely appear number one under the heading "most benign".

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Interesting facts about the common potato

The potato is a common vegetable choice these days who appears in at least one meal per day in the Western Hemisphere, especially in winter, when baked and mashed potatoes are great comfort food. However, the potato was once an object of disgust and suspicion. Is a member of the family Solanaceae that is a nightshade, then some toxins in its stems and leaves, and really shouldn't eat one that has a green tings to it. Its Latin name, Solanum tuberosum, means the root soothing while the potato Word has its origins in Peruvian Quechua-batata name now given to a kind of sweet potato and potato. Our source potato Andean South America about 8,000 years ago and was cultivated by the people remains of 6,000 years ago according to archaeology. They were "discovered" by Spanish explorers in the 16th century and were filmed in Spain, where they had a mixed reception.

English Buccaneer Sir Walter Raleigh is credited with taking them to Britain in 1589 and grew up on his estate near Cork, Ireland. Has a story that introduced the calming root of Elizabeth I and she ordered a banquet to be ready with the new plant in each course. Unfortunately no one bothered to tell the chef how to cook them so they threw away the tuber and fed guests stems and inflorescences, which contain toxins. Courtiers fell ill, some fatally, and the potato has been banned from the Royal Court.

They didn't fare much better in France as they were thought to be the root of all disease and the cause of premature deaths. An edict decreed that as they were the cause of leprosy was forbidden to be cultivated on "the pain of a fine". However, the potato came into its own in France when Auguste Antoine Parmentier (his name lives on in culinary circles as the description for almost thin potato sticks), who had been imprisoned in Germany and fed a diet of potatoes only returned to France. Has created a feast that has had more success than the English and popularized the potato in the Court of Louis XIV. The peasants, who had little to eat at the moment would not touch the potato, until Louis guards surrounding his potato patch-a clever ploy as peasants, thinking that they were very valuable that stole them. After this the tuber became popular. Marie Antoinette and the ladies of his Court brought the potato plants flowers in their hair as decoration.

Writing at the end of the 19th century, Friedrich Nietzsche (1844- -1900) the German philosopher wrote that "a diet composed mainly of rice to opium use." just as a diet that consists mainly of potatoes, leads to the use of liquor, this could be a radical generalization, but it is worth mentioning, perhaps, that the Russians used potatoes for their vodka, while the Irish, who cultivated potatoes for centuries made moonshine called Potcheen with potatoes.

Potatoes have certainly had an interesting history in the West don't you think?

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