Virtual Chocolate

A second on your lips forever on your hips never happens with virtual chocolate. 

Chocolate begins from a seed. A cacao seed. It is then fermented, roasted, shelled, grounded, and melted into other forms and tastes. It is also exactly how a product is created. Whether a car or an article. 

The process begins with an idea--another way of seeding. We ferment it--we let it roll around in our imagination, sprinkle on a little creativity, and even place it into a state of aggravation in order to deshell it. 

Next, we roast the idea, melt it, add this and that, and mold it into some delectable small, large, round or square piece that will tingle taste buds, yours, and mine too. It could be building a book, an article, a building, or sending food to a starving country. 

Sometimes we remove something to change it's color or to make it fat free. With chocolate, they remove the extra shell and then make it into white chocolate. For a writer, it's the editing process, the removing of that inner shell to find the white sweeter spot or to make it fat free. 

Everything leads up to one thing whether it's making virtual chocolate or anything else. It's the user's result. When someone pops that piece of chocolate into their mouth and that smile of delight lights up their face, it doesn't matter whether they're young or old, an American or of Australian descent. A smile is a smile on any human being. And a smile on a child is forever on our hard drive. 

So, what is the difference if you are making chocolate or writing an e-mail that makes someone smile. Send virtual chocolate everyday and make them smile.

Is Chocolate A New Health Food?

Could it be possible that our beloved chocolate may actually be good for us? This is the nutrition news we have all been waiting for. So here is the scoop on chocolate and its health benefits. Yes, you read right, health benefits!

Recent studies show that cocoa and dark chocolate with a high cocoa content contain many heart-healthy antioxidants. They contain a compound called flavonoids which may help prevent the oxidation of LDL (bad) cholesterol and raise HDL (good) cholesterol levels in the blood. There is also some evidence that these flavonoids may prevent certain cancers.

It is important that we are all on the same page here, not all chocolate have these health benefits. The healthy flavonoids found in chocolate are found in the cocoa butter and cocoa solids. Milk chocolate is diluted with milk and sugar and contains little amounts of these substances, therefore providing fewer health benefits. So, for those of you who love dark chocolate this is your lucky day! The darker the chocolate, the higher the cocoa content and the more antioxidants it contains. The quality of the chocolate you consume is also important. The cocoa butter is quite pricey so less expensive brands will replace the cocoa butter with milk fats and hydrogenated oils which are bad for our health. Look for high quality chocolates with their main ingredients being cocoa butter and cocoa solids. Unsweetened cocoa powder is one of the purest forms of chocolate you can eat and is lower in fat and calories than other chocolates.

Although this is great news for all chocolate lovers, don't forget that most chocolate (unless you use unsweetened cocoa powder) does still contain sugar and saturated fat.

And please remember calories. An ounce of chocolate contains around 135 calories. So enjoy a cup of hot cocoa or an ounce of chocolate once in awhile to contribute to your health and not to your waistline!

Owner of Real Living Nutrition Services, Meri Raffetto is a recognized professional in the area of nutrition and wellness. She has received a bachelor’s degree in both nutrition and psychology and has extensive experience in nutrition counseling and medical nutrition therapy. She offers individual nutrition counseling and has developed one of the only non-diet online weight management programs available on the internet. Meri specializes in weight management, cardiovascular health, and sports nutrition and consults with professional athletes at Titan Sports Performance Center. Her practice includes teaching people how to eat for endurance, improve vitality, and lose weight healthfully.