Saturday, April 08, 2006

Good news for choc-a-holics

Dr Karl must be almost favourite doctor. While confirming the myth "chocolate can kill dogs" (as little as 140g of cooking/compound chocolate), he also provided some other very useful information:
  • the process of producing chocolate: picking, burying and fermenting, roasting, conching, adding sugar, milk etc;
  • outline history of chocolate from Maya to Spain as a drink to England where J.S. Fry and Sons became the first producers of solid chocolate in 1847;
  • in small doses chocolate can be good for you: it contributes to dilation and elasticity of blood vessels and destroys tooth-decay-causing bacteria -- though the added sugar in milk chocolate feed the same bacteria. Better stick to dark chocolate;
  • that theobromine (literally "food of gods" C 7 H 8 N 4 O 2, the key ingredient to chocolate, and what makes it toxic to dogs) and caffeine (literally "food of Cam" C 8 H 10 N 4 O 2) are both methylxanthines.
Now if Dr Karl would only do for coffee what he did for chocolate, beginning with describing the many ways that its good for you...

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