By: Laura Burk MPH, RD, LD
How much do you really know about chocolate? Did you know it might make you feel like you’re falling in love? Or how much less caffeine it has than coffee? Read on for fascinating trivia and a useful glossary of chocolate terms from Godiva Chocolates.
- There are about 5 to 10 milligrams of caffeine in one ounce of bittersweet chocolate, 5 milligrams in milk chocolate, and 10 milligrams in a six-ounce cup of cocoa; by contrast, there are 100 to 150 milligrams of caffeine in an eight-ounce cup of brewed coffee. You would have to eat more than a dozen Hershey Bars, for example, to get the amount of caffeine in one cup of coffee.
- Chocolate has long been heralded for its value as an energy source. Think of it this way: a single chocolate chip provides sufficient food energy for an adult to walk 150 feet; hence, it would take about 35 chocolate chips to go a mile, or 875,000 for an around-the-world hike.
- Ten percent of U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance of iron is found in one ounce of baking chocolate or cocoa.
- Consumers spend more than $7 billion a year on chocolate and US consumers eat 2.8 billion pounds of chocolate annually, representing nearly half of the world’s supply.
- Annual per capita consumption of chocolate is 12 pounds per person.
- American chocolate manufacturers use about 1.5 billion pounds of milk — only surpassed by the cheese and ice cream industries.
- Chocolate has over 500 flavor components, more than twice the amount found in strawberry and vanilla.
Should you, and could you, cut all the sugar including chocolate out of your diet?
This pure white bundle of sucrose (sucre, sukkar or azucar) preserves and increases flavors in foods. To most of us, sugar is irresistible causing weight gain, plateaus, and diet pitfalls.
Is sugar really evil? No, sugar is a carbohydrate that absorbs very quickly within the body. Sugar can be detrimental to our bodies by causing dental cavities in our teeth.
Eliminating all sugars from your diet would include candies, fruits, vegetables, certain breads and other baked goods. These foods contain different types of sugars and some are very important to the body.
If you feel you have too much sugar including chocolate in your diet try to watch portion sizes of soft drinks, fruit drinks, sugar cereals, and baked goods. Enjoy Valentine’s Day with small amounts of sweets.