Health
While hot chocolate is generally consumed for pleasure, there are several potential health benefits associated with drinking hot chocolate. A 2003 study from Cornell University found that cocoa contains large amounts of antioxidants that may help prevent cancer. Also, the Cocoa Bean has demonstrated evidence that it helps with digestion. From the 16th to 19th centuries, hot chocolate was valued as a medicine as well as a drink. The explorer Francisco Hernández wrote that chocolate beverages helped treat fever and liver disease. Another explorer, Santiago de Valverde Turices, believed that large amounts of hot chocolate were helpful in treating chest ailments and that smaller amounts could help stomach disorders. When chocolate was introduced to the French in the 17th century, it was reportedly used "to fight against fits of anger and bad moods", which may be attributed to chocolate's phenylethylamine content. Today, hot chocolate is consumed for pleasure rather than medicinally, but new research suggests that there may be other health benefits attributed to the drink.
On the other hand, several negative effects can be attributed to drinking hot chocolate. Some hot chocolate recipes contain high amounts of sugar.
Read more about this topic: Hot Chocolate
Famous quotes containing the word health:
“You already know I desire that neither Father or Mother shall be in want of any comfort either in health or sickness while they live.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Taste is the fundamental quality which sums up all the other qualities. It is the nec plus ultra of the intelligence. Through this alone is genius the supreme health and balance of all the faculties.”
—Isidore Ducasse, Comte de Lautréamont (1846–1870)