When it comes to chocolate, even knowing a little about its history and some of its effects on our bodies is fun. But what for some is an uncontrollable pleasure, for others it is a temptation, especially for those who want to lose weight.
The tree that gives rise to cocoa is the cocoa tree that has the scientific name Theobroma cocoa, whose name Theobroma means drink of the gods. Cocoa is a tree native to Central and South America, which needs special conditions to produce. Just to give an example, cocoa-producing trees are very sensitive to climatic variations and especially to diseases. Its height does not usually exceed 10 meters and if conditions are favorable, in just 5 years its production begins, and it can live for up to 50 years. The pollination of your flowers is carried out by bats!
Chocolate
Brazil was once one of the great world cocoa producers, contributing at the time with more than 30% of world production. However, problems related to local production costs and lack of producer organization Cocoa trees, contributed to the retraction of this productive sector, representing today only 4% of production worldwide.
The history of cocoa is very old, as pre-Columbian people already used its seeds to make a drink used in religious rituals and some used it as currency. Cristovão Colombo, in one of his several incursions across the continent, was the first European to take knowledge of chocolate, but the success of chocolate in Europe only occurred in years later. Initially, the drink, being bitter and oily, was not suitable for European taste, only with the replacement of some products, such as pepper for its sugar, for example, it was allowed a greater acceptance of the drink.
With the popularity, soon other European countries began to produce cocoa in their colonies, contributing to the decrease in prices, which were extremely high! In this way, the drink that was previously exclusive to kings and fortunate people, gradually became popular. Replacing water with milk also significantly improved the taste of the drink. From the increase in consumption and the development of new and modern production techniques and processing, chocolate was consumed in tablets and evolved into the form we know at the moment.
Regarding the effects of chocolate on our body, there are no conclusive studies on how the substances present in this food act in our system nervous, however, some studies already carried out managed to demystify the idea that chocolate would be related to the appearance of acne and inflammation skin. Thus, the big problem regarding the consumption of chocolate refers to the excess of hydrogenated fat added during its manufacture, which is harmful.
Fabricio Alves Ferreira
Graduated in Biology
Brazil School Team
Curiosities - Brazil School
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/curiosidades/chocolate.htm