Kelly Robinette discusses the history of chocolate, benefits of chocolate and fun facts of America's favorite treat!
Kelly Robinette discusses the history of chocolate, benefits of chocolate and fun facts of America's favorite treat!
Good morning. This is Kitty Glomski along with
Brooke:my cohost Brooke Mainville
Kitty Glomski:from Region 9 Area Agency and Aging and another episode of Let's Talk About Aging.
Brooke:Welcome back Kelly. You always have interesting topics to talk about. In the past, you talked about diabetes.
Kelly:And today we're going to talk about another good topic. I think that should be on everybody's goodie list is the health benefits of chocolate. Since October is the month of candy, I'm just going to give you a couple little trivia since Halloween seems to be the biggie thing going on in October. During the Halloween season, consumers in the U. S. spend about$3. 1 billion on candy. I can't imagine that much candy.
Brooke:I'm thinking about the money amount, but you're right, thinking about the amount of candy that buys.
Kelly:Can you imagine 3. 1 billion dollars? Can you just kind of figure how many pieces of candy that would be? I'd just like to see that. 68 percent of Americans participate in Halloween and that was always a fun time when I was a kid going out trick or treating.
Brooke:It is a fun time. It still is an adult. I am excited because I get to pass out candy for the first time. And then I bought my dog Mabel a Halloween costume.
Kelly:That would be cute. I'm kind of disappointed because I love Halloween and I don't have any kids in my neighborhood that go out trick or treating. So I'm a little bit disappointed. Yeah, that would
Brooke:be a big thing over the years have been a lot of trunk or treats.
Kelly:Brooke, do you know what the most popular holiday Halloween candy is in the United States?
Brooke:The most popular Halloween candy? I'm gonna go with Reese Cups.
Kelly:No, that was second on the list. The most popular Halloween candy in America is Skittles, believe it or not.
Brooke:I cannot believe that. Skittles over chocolate? Huh. I know that shocks me. So Kelly, what is so special about chocolate? What makes chocolate so special?
Kelly:One of the reasons chocolate is unique is the temperature at which it melts. That's between 94 and 97 degrees. So just picture a morsel of chocolate sliding across your tongue and it liquefies into a perfect puddle. And the reason it does that is because the human body temperature is 98 point six, just above the melting point of chocolate. So the phrase it melts in your mouth is definitely true.
Brooke:That is interesting. Kelly, what is the history of chocolate? Do we know who found it? Who developed it?
Kelly:It is believed that the Mayans probably were the first people in South America to cultivate the cocoa plant. They preferred a drink. With cocoa, hot water, cinnamon and pepper, and that was known as the food of the gods. And that was around 1100 BC. And then the Aztecs use chocolate for ceremonial purposes and believe that chocolate had medicinal properties to it. Then in 1502, Christopher Columbus captured a canoe containing cocoa beans, and he considered them mysterious looking almonds. And it was identified that they used the cocoa bean as a form of currency early on. The modern chocolate bar with added sugar was created in 1847. Through the centuries, chocolate was considered an aphrodisiac, and it was used to treat fatigue and diarrhea. So chocolate has been around for a while.
Brooke:A lot of spiritual and medical options are available through chocolate. They had me, the cocoa drink had cocoa, hot water and cinnamon, but then they added pepper. And I was like, that one's interesting.
Kelly:It probably just adds a different little perk to it, just a little zip to it. I would guess is why they did that. So Brooke, can you guess the five types of chocolate?
Brooke:Five types of chocolate. Okay, white chocolate, dark chocolate, semi sweet. Chocolate chips. I only know those three.
Kelly:There are actually five types of chocolate. So we're going to talk about those a little bit. There's unsweetened chocolate, and that's bitter chocolate or baking chocolate, and it usually comes in a big bar, and that's pure chocolate liqueur, which makes it so bitter. And everybody just wants to take a huge bite out of it, but you're very disappointed when you get a mouthful of that. And then there's dark chocolate is made by adding fat and sugar to cocoa liqueur. And you also add cocoa butter, and then there's semi sweet chocolate is chocolate liqueur plus sugar, cocoa, butter, and vanilla. You use that one a lot in cooking. Right And then milk chocolate is made by adding sugar, milk powder, or sweetened condensed milk to the cocoa butter and the liqueur. White chocolate is also one of my favorites. That's made from sugar, cocoa butter, and milk solids. So the white chocolate does not contain any cocoa liqueur, so it's technically not a chocolate.
Brooke:So what made them different was the cocoa butter, the cocoa solids, and liqueur?
Kelly:They're made different by the varying proportions of the solids, the liqueur, and the cocoa butter that's added to each of the items.
Brooke:I actually didn't know that there was the five. What type of chocolate, Kelly, is the most beneficial for us to have?
Kelly:When it comes to chocolate, the darker the better. The most beneficial is dark chocolate, and that should be at least 70 percent cacao. Dark chocolate is rich in flavonols, which are healthy antioxidants that are also found in fruits, vegetables, and green tea. And then there are flavonols that give dark chocolate that slightly bitter taste. And they also provide cardiovascular benefits, such as helping reduce the risk of developing heart disease, stroke, cancer, and premature aging. And cocoa is one of the richest sources of antioxidants found in any other food. According to the food scientist at Cornell University, a cup of hot chocolate has up to three times the antioxidants found in a cup of green tea and almost twice the amount of a glass of wine. Remember you're using the dark chocolate when you do that. And dark chocolate contains about eight times the antioxidants to strawberries. And there are as many antioxidants in one and a half ounces of dark chocolate as there are in five ounces of red wine.
Brooke:I'm hearing that dark chocolate in moderation is healthy. Are there more health benefits to ease some of those guilts of people may have of eating it? Because all so far, everything is sounding like it's okay to eat dark chocolate in moderation.
Kelly:There are a few more health benefits that dark chocolate are, it's good for the heart. By lowering your blood pressure, it improves blood flow and helping to prevent the formation of blood clots. The anti-inflammatory compounds and Cocos helps fight the chronic vascular inflammation and improve blood vessel flexibility, therefore reducing your blood pressure. Chocolate is misunderstood due to its cocoa butter content, which is high in saturated fat. So about a third of the fat in the cocoa butter is stearic acid, in which the liver converts to a healthy monounsaturated fat called oleic acid. And the oleic acid lowers the LDL, which is the bad cholesterol, and boosts your HDL levels, which is your good cholesterol. And chocolate is also good for the brain. It can increase blood flow to the brain so it can help improve cognitive function, and it can also help reduce the risk of stroke. It also believe it or not helps your blood sugar. It keeps the blood vessels healthy and blood circulation functional, which helps protect against type 2 diabetes. The flavonoids and dark chocolate can also help reduce insulin resistance by helping your cells to function normally and regain their ability to use your body's insulin effectively. It's also good for your teeth due to the. Thermobromine content, it hardens tooth enamel. Really? It's good for reducing stress. It contains several chemical compounds that influence your mood. Phenyllithamine found in cocoa beans, stimulates your brain to release endorphins associated with feeling, the feelings you have when you are in love. It also produces feelings of euphoria. Not everyone acts this way, but we do feel happier and less stressed after we have a bite of dark chocolate.
Brooke:Maybe that's why chocolates, valentine's candy.
Kelly:Right.
Brooke:Even though dark chocolate has health benefits, how much should someone consume?
Kelly:To avoid weight gain, consuming only one ounce of dark chocolate daily is recommended. So remember a typical candy bar is 1.55 ounces. To avoid weight gain. Consuming only one ounce of dark chocolate daily is recommended. So that would be about two thirds of a dark chocolate bar.
Brooke:Still, that's a good amount of chocolate per day.
Kelly:It is, and with all those health recommendations, I don't want anybody to think that eating chocolate is going to solve all those medical issues, reducing your blood sugar, helping your teeth, we still have to follow our doctor's recommendation and not go whole hog on chocolate. We only need one small piece a day.
Brooke:It's that dark chocolate and not the white chocolate or the milk chocolate that I find tastes better, it's not as bitter to me.
Kelly:You can even find it when you eat the same size piece of milk chocolate versus the dark chocolate. When you eat the dark chocolate, you're satisfied. When you eat the milk chocolate, you just want to eat more and more.
Brooke:Kelly, is chocolate healthy? Is it a luxury item or is it junk? You hear that it could be all three. Which one is it?
Kelly:You're right, Brooke. It can be all three, not just all at the same time. The choice is yours. So go easy, go dark, and go chocolate.
Brooke:The football season. That's right. So, Kelly, you have one last Halloween trivia question.
Kelly:Brooke. Do you know what candy corn used to be called?
Brooke:Candy corn so-that is the candy that is the yellow, white,
Kelly:and orange orange. The one that people either really, really like, or really, really hate.
Brooke:I'm on the side of loving it. I'm going to say maybe like witches nails. I Don't know.
Kelly:No, it used to be called chicken feed. It's characteristic, the white, orange, and yellow stripes are supposed to resemble corn kernel.
Brooke:I did not know that, Kelly. There's a lot of facts about candy out there that I do not know.
Kelly:Me too, and I love candy. Just one little piece of dark chocolate every day can do a world of wonders, but still we have to follow our doctor's recommendations for our health.
Brooke:I highly enjoyed this. I know I learned a lot. So thank you again for being here, Kelly.
Kelly:Oh, you are very welcome. And I'm sure I will. We'll be back sometime down the road. Thank you again, Brooke, for having me today. I've thoroughly enjoyed it.
Brooke:November is a full calendar for us here at Region 9. I have three virtual events for you. The first one is Powerful Tools for Caregivers. It's taking place on November 8th through December 13th. It's a six week workshop from 3:00 to 4:30 and Powerful Tools help caregivers deal with caregiving. Powerful Tools is a workshop that helps caregivers deal with the difficulties of caregiving for someone. We teach the importance of self care and if you take care of yourself, you are a better caregiver. We learn how to deal with difficult emotions and how to communicate with others. It's a great six week workshop. Our second event for November is a chair exercise workshop. It is on Wednesday, November 8th from 1:00 to 2:00 pm, and led by BJ from the Alpena Senior Citizen Center. We're going to be doing live chat chair exercises as a group and learn why is that beneficial to us. You could either be standing or sitting and it will hopefully improve your balance and your flexibility to prevent falls. That is November 8th. Our last one is Building Resilience to Avoid Care Burnout. That's going to take place November 10th, from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. This webinar will help you build your resilience, learn to recognize the signs of burnout, how to avoid burnout, and then we're going to actually learn three mindful activities and this is put on by Nicole Wethington at MSU Extension. These are the three events that Region 9 is hosting: It is Powerful Tools for Caregivers, our Healthy Living Webinar Series, and our Caregiver Webinar Series. So if you're interested in Powerful Tools, chair exercises, or Building Resilience to Avoid Burnout, contact me at 989-358-4616.
Kitty Glomski:So this is Kitty Glomski and Brooke Mainville asking you to join us again next time on Let's Talk About Aging.
Carla:Let's Talk About Aging is a production of the Region 9 Area Agency on Aging, 2569 US 23 South, Alpena, Michigan 4 9 7 0 7. This Podcast was supported, in part, by grant number 90MPPG0039 from the US Administration for Community Living, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC. Podcast music provided by Groove Music, selection titled"Modern Logo," created by Vadym Kuznietsov and can be found at https://elements.envato.com/modern-logo-ZVHFBJ6