Chocolate Is Healthy

While we’re often told to steer clear of saturated fats, some of the saturated fat found in chocolate is actually not harmful and doesn’t raise cholesterol.   So does this make chocolate heart healthy?    Cocoa butter still contains fat and calories that can contribute to weight gain.  So much of healthy chocolate consumption depends on how it is consumed. Here’s what Cooking Light suggests when it comes to having your chocolate and eating it too.

“Some researchers argue, however, that, regardless of stearic acid, chocolate is still a high-fat, high-calorie food. Small amounts can be worked into a healthy diet, but large quantities aren’t a recipe for good health, particularly when you consider how many Americans are overweight, says Penn State University nutritionist Penny Kris-Etherton, Ph.D. She suggests a leaner way to get that chocolate fix: Opt for cocoa, the powder formed when cocoa beans are ground and stripped of cocoa butter.”

Healthy Chocolate? – CookingLight.com.

It can be hard to visualize how chocolate goes from a strange-looking bean pod to the delicious dark sweet we enjoy.  Here’s an overview of how cocoa beans are harvested, fermented, dried, cleaned and roasted.

An excerpt:

” The beans are left to ferment on chests or in large piles on the ground, and are covered over with banana leaves. Yeast and bacteria now go to work, removing the sugar by converting it first to alcohol and carbon dioxide, and then to acetic acid. This process takes between 2 and 9 days, depending on the type of bean. The beans are continually turned over to ensure that they ferment evenly. The end result of this process is a bean loosened from its pulp, devoid of its ability to germinate, and full of color and flavor.

Next, the beans are dried. They are placed on bamboo or wooden mats or and exposed to the hot sun for roughly two weeks. The beans are continually turned over to ensure even drying. Before the beans can be shipped, they must be packed into sacks; then they are stored, branded and numbered.”

How Chocolate Is Made – Cocoa Bean Preparation – Chocolate Necessities, Inc..