The Love of Chocolate

Excerpt from Our Journey with Food ©2015, 2018
Revised 2/2021


By Tammera Karr PhD

The cacao tree, aptly named Theobroma cacao, by the famous botanist Carl Linnaeus. The cacao tree only grows within twenty degrees of the equator in the tropics’ damp conditions. Once mature, the tree will produce small, white flowers that can only be pollinated by midges, a fly no larger than a pencil’s tip. When cacao pods are mature, they are harvested by hand using a machete. Each pod is broken open to expose the beans and white pulp and collected into a pile. The beans and pulp remain outside in the heat and high humidity to undergo fermentation.


What is fermentation?

Fermentation is a metabolic process that occurs with microorganisms. Bacteria and yeast thrive in hot, moist climates, and the cacao pulp is an excellent nutrient source. In this case, the bacteria and yeast are needed to produce the precursor compounds necessary for chocolate’s characteristic flavor and aroma. Bacteria do this by eating some of the sugar and acid content, converting it into other molecules. Fermentation typically lasts for about a week. Once fermentation is complete, the farmers will separate the beans from the pulp, used as a nutrient source during fermentation. Next, the beans are left to dry in the sun.


A little history

In Greek, Theobroma translates to food of the gods. Chocolate connoisseurs know there is more than a gustatory pleasure to be found in this food of the gods. In 1753, Carl von Linnaeus, a Swedish scientist, thought cacao was so important he named the genus and species of tree Theobroma cacao, which means cacao, the food of the gods. This food dates back to prehistoric times and was extensively cultivated in Mexico, Central, and South America for centuries before Europeans’ arrived. 173 The Mayan Indians began cultivating cacao about 600 AD. The indigenous populations ate only the fruit, which contains numerous health benefits. The seed or cacao nib was set aside for a psychedelic brew, called ayahuasca, and for medicines. According to Aztec myth, the cacao awakened power and wisdom. When the explorer Cortes brought cacao back to Spain in 1528, it was sequestered and enjoyed only by nobility and the wealthy.

The many uses of chocolate

In medieval times, chocolate was viewed as a luxury item and an indulgence. In modern times chocolate is used as gifts for mothers and sweethearts. It is made into cocktails, cold and hot drinks, candies, powders, wines, and lotions. The Spanish are widely responsible for the introduction and development of chocolate foods and beverages.


The making of chocolate foods

The most critical step is roasting. Roasting generates hundreds of the flavor compounds associate with chocolate. The beans are roasted at high temperatures for roughly one hour. There are many chemical reactions responsible for cacoa color, flavor, and aroma. Cacoa naturally has a strong, pungent/bitter taste, which comes from the flavonols. Without roasting, the cacao beans would never obtain the flavor profile we associate with modern chocolate. Cacoa nibs are crushed to form cocoa butter and cocoa liquor. There are several processing steps involved in reducing cacaos bitter taste. Cocoa liquor has a very concentrated, chocolatey flavor with a trace of bitterness and acidity. Other ingredients like sugar, milk solids, vanilla, and emulsifiers are added to the pure cocoa liquor. The addition of these ingredients to the liquor results in a coarse, heterogeneous mixture that still must be further processed. The more chocolate is processed (through fermentation, alkalizing, roasting, etc.), the more flavanols are lost. 174


What science tells us about the health properties of chocolate

Flavonoids are naturally-occurring compounds found in plant-based foods that offer specific health benefits. They are part of the polyphenol group (chemicals found in plants). Flavanols are a type of flavonoid found explicitly in cocoa and chocolate. More than 4,000 flavonoid compounds are found in various foods and beverages, such as cranberries, apples, peanuts, chocolate, onions, tea, and red wine. Most popular commercial chocolates are highly processed, providing little if any health benefits.

Dark chocolate contains a large number of antioxidants (nearly eight times the amount found in strawberries). Flavonoids also help lower blood pressure nitric oxide production; they can also balance certain hormones. The fats in chocolate (1/3 oleic acid, 1/3 stearic acid, and 1/3 palmitic acid) do not impact your cholesterol. Dark chocolate helps restore flexibility to arteries while preventing white blood cells from sticking to blood vessels’ walls. Both arterial stiffness and white blood cell adhesion are known factors that play a significant role in atherosclerosis. Scientists found that increasing the flavanol content of dark chocolate did not change this effect. Research published in the March 2014 issue of The FASEB Journal.

The effect that dark chocolate has on our bodies is encouraging not only because it allows us to indulge with less guilt, but also because it could lead the way to therapies that do the same thing as dark chocolate but with better and more consistent results,” said Gerald Weissmann, MD, editor-in-chief of The FASEB Journal. Until the ‘dark chocolate drug’ is developed, however, we’ll have to make do with what nature has given us! 175, 177


Benefits of dark chocolate


Chocolate is a complex food with over 300 compounds and chemicals in each bite. Look for pure dark chocolate or dark chocolate with nuts, orange peel, or other natural flavorings. To enjoy and appreciate chocolate, take the time to taste it. Most studies used no more than 100 grams, or about 3.5 ounces, of dark chocolate a day. One bar of dark chocolate has around 400 calories.

Enjoy moderate portions of chocolate (e.g., one ounce) a few times per week, and don’t forget to consume other flavonoid-rich foods like apples, red wine, tea, onions, and cranberries. Your best choices are dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate (especially milk chocolate that is loaded with other fats and sugars) and cocoa powder that has not undergone Dutch processing (cocoa treated with an alkali to neutralize its natural acidity).

Caution: According to the National Hazardous Substances Database: In large doses, theobromine may cause nausea and anorexia, and the daily intake of 50-100g cocoa (1.5 g theobromine) has been associated with sweating, trembling, and severe headache. Occasionally, people (mostly the elderly) have needed hospital treatment for a theobromine reaction.

  1. The Science behind Chocolate by Abbey Thiel:
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By Tammera J. Karr, PhD

As we move full swing into the Christmas season, we are exposed daily to a barrage of messages – messages for the newest drugs, insurance companies, commodities, and festive food and beverages representing joy, happiness, acceptance, and security. Sugar is a significant player in the holiday foods that fuel memories and stimulate senses. The idea of Christmas without sugar cookies, candy, fudge, pies and candied yams registers merely as unAmerican to many. However, the idea of sugar being important to festivities, in reality, is just another fantasy message.

Why we believe much of what we do about sugar is the result of “fake” news:

  1. People think of sugar as lacking micronutrients but otherwise harmless—what was falsified for publication in the 1960s and 1970s.
  2. Despite stringent guidelines for disclosure on researchers instituted by prominent journals, influence over nutrition science by food industry groups continues to occur.

Dr. Cristin Kearns published her findings in the Online JAMA Internal Medicine on September 12, 2016. Dr. Kearns’s paper exposes how Drs. Stare and Hegsted, both now deceased, worked closely with a trade group called the Sugar Research Foundation, which successfully influenced public understanding of sugar’s role in disease.

Dr. Stare founded the department of nutrition at Harvard in 1942 and was regularly sought out by the media as the expert on healthy eating. Dr. Hegsted was a member of that department, subsequently holding essential positions with the US Department of Agriculture and various top advisory bodies.

In a Harvard library basement, Dr. Cristin Kearns dentist and researcher from the University of California-San Francisco discovered old letters beginning in 1942 between members of the sugar industry and leading Harvard nutritionists, Dr. Fredrick Stare and Dr. D. Mark Hegsted—collusion and intent to publish fraudulent information to the public is clear.

Dr. Kearns’ has revealed evidence the sugar industry did more than merely sponsor review studies on sugar— in fact; they controlled them from beginning to end. Correspondence from Stare, Hegsted, and the Sugar Research Foundation documents the sugar industry initiated the studies in the first place and influenced their results with the specific goal of eliminating any evidence of sugar as a significant risk for coronary heart disease. I

ncluding suppressing studies that showed a relationship between high-sugar diets and coronary heart disease. Direction was given by Big Sugar for scientists to focus instead on the link between coronary heart disease and dietary fat and cholesterol.

The historical documents disclose the Sugar Research Foundation paid the equivalent of over $48,000 to respected nutrition professors—Drs. Stare and Hegsted and Harvard scientist, Robert McGandy—they were to produce a research paper for publication in a prominent peer-reviewed journal. The objective – shift the blame for coronary heart disease away from sugar. The biased research the sugar association bought appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1967.

The early publications by the Harvard scientists Stare, Hegsted and McGandy’s official stance discredited the research-proven dangers of sugar, and determined only one dietary change could prevent Coronary Artery Disease —reducing saturated fat and cholesterol intake.

A few of Dr. Stare’s questionable recommendations that influenced government, media, mainstream medicine, and the public for generations:

While impossible to blame historical figures for all deaths from excess sugar consumption over the past 50 years, Stare’s position at Harvard and collusion with the sugar industry has played a role in preventable disease, morbidity, and death in America.

Assessed worldwide deaths from ischemic heart disease, stroke, and diabetes caused by elevated blood glucose measure 3.2 million every year. High blood glucose accounts for 21% of all ischemic heart disease deaths and 13% of all stroke deaths. At this mortality rate, total deaths over 50 years from sugar intake could equal 158 million…… That grim number is more than double the overall number of deaths resulting from World Wars I and II combined.

So consider – are those sugary treats during the ensuing holiday season worth the price of your health?



Kearns CE, Schmidt LA, Glantz SA. Sugar Industry and Coronary Heart Disease Research: A Historical Analysis of Internal Industry Documents. JAMA Intern Med. 2016;176(11):1680-5.

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