Chocolate
Why Do We Like It?
I’m not sure I’ve ever met someone who didn’t like chocolate. The thing is that chocolate comes in so many different forms. You can go flat out with Hershey’s bar chocolate. Or you could go with chocolate milk or a chocolate milkshake. You can have brownies and chocolate chip cookies. There is chocolate pudding and chocolate cream pie. You can have chocolate-covered raisins. There is chocolate cake and chocolate frosting.
You can have dark chocolate and milk chocolate. You can have a truffle, which I believe is a very expensive piece of chocolate. In a box of Whitman’s candy, there are all manner of chocolates. Remember what Forest Gump said? “Life is like a box of chocolates.” Or maybe it was his mother who said it. Well, they both said it.
You can even have white chocolate, which is one of my favorites these days. We keep chocolate chips, both white and milk chocolate, in the freezer. They are in open bags with clothespins to hold the bags shut. A handful in a tiny bowl, and you’ve got a snack.
My husband likes me to put some in his smoothies: Whatever leftover coffee is around, a couple of spoons of yoghurt, some milk, some chocolate dairy creamer, a banana, shake in some frozen chocolate chips, a healthy squirt of Hershey’s chocolate syrup, a scoop of Orgain chocolate protein powder, and about 16 ice cubes. I put it in our blender on the milkshake function….oh, wait. I forgot. You need to put in a heaping spoonful of peanut butter. There. I think that’s it. Oh, if you’ve got any blueberries, put in a handful of them too. It’s a lot of ingredients, but you should see the look on his face. It’s priceless.
That’s chocolate in our house.
So, are there medicinal uses for chocolate? I don’t know. There should be.
Okay. They say in moderation. Right. Stopped you in your tracks, didn’t it? So, good for diabetics as the epicatechin in dark chocolate protects cells and helps with your body’s use of insulin. Sign me up. I’ll have to ask my diabetes doctor what she thinks. It might be news to her. I’ve run other theories by her that were about as interesting as a fart in church. I remember asking her something my father touted. He said toast had fewer calories in it because it had been toasted. He was also bipolar, so he said a lot of things. The doctor was not impressed with that particular theory and said he was wrong.
Man, there are all sorts of studies that suggest chocolate is the solution to pretty much everything that ails us. It helps with cardiovascular disease, is good for your skin, and prevents sun damage. I suppose you’re not supposed to slather it on your arms and eat it instead. It’s good for weight loss. I’ve never heard that one before.
You know what’s funny? I just went out to see what my husband was up to. He was fixing himself a bowl of chocolate sprinkles ice cream. I asked if he wanted extra chocolate chips on top, but he said no. So, I made myself a small dish of the white chocolate chips we keep in the freezer. The nice thing about keeping things in the freezer is that much of the time, we forget they are in there, so your stuff lasts longer. I tried keeping my cigarettes in the freezer years ago when I was trying to quit smoking. It didn’t work. I smoked them cold.
I wonder if chocolate can help with your sex drive. Holy crap. Yes, by gum. It’s the dark chocolate that helps with serotonin and hence with your sex drive.
Okay, that’s enough. Wait. Although it can hinder calcium absorption, it might help with eyesight.
Okay, enough down the chocolate rabbit hole.
Thanks for reading. I hope this doesn’t keep you up at night.
Pauline Evanosky