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However, doctors advise against over-indulgence. Research is still
continuing. As with all things, the best advice is to eat all the chocolate you
want to – but in moderation.

Longevity specialist, Dr. Michael Roizen states"Eat chocolate! Only
chocolate with real cocoa (dark chocolate) will do, but if you eat one ounce
every day, you increase the level of healthy fat in your diet. "

Researchers found eating 100g of dark chocolate each day for 15 days
lowered blood pressure in the 15 person-study. The University of L'Aquila
team also found the body's ability to metabolise sugar - a problem for people
with diabetes - was improved. The team said an antioxidant called flavanol
was responsible for the effect because it neutralised potentially cell-
damaging substances known as oxygen free radicals, the American Journal
of Clinical Nutrition reported.

Cholesterol - Studies show that cocoa butter has a neutral effect on blood
cholesterol levels because of the high level of stearic acid. studies are
showing that antioxidants in chocolate -- dark chocolate and cocoa powder --
may increase "good" (HDL) cholesterol levels by as much as 10 percent. In
the studies, subjects ate 22 grams of cocoa powder and 16 grams of dark
chocolate every day (one Hershey bar contains 45 grams of cocoa powder).
The result: Their "bad" (LDL) cholesterol was less susceptible to oxidation, a
process that normally leads to artery-clogging plaques. While many people
take vitamins and other antioxidants to help prevent plaque development,
the study shows that cocoa could do the trick.

Chocolate may be endowed with more than just antioxidants. Previous
research by Kris-Etherton published in the American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition in 1997 showed that one of the fats in chocolate, called stearic acid,
can boost HDL levels. Also, when people ate milk chocolate regularly, their
levels of LDL didn't increase as might have been expected from fat
consumption.

HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE
For many cacao grew in the under-story of the tropical rain forest of the northern
Amazon basin. Together with the plethora of plants, animals, and insects of the
rain forest, it thrived in the shade on the forest floor and lived on the nutrients and
water passed down from the canopy above.

Cacao has been a cultivated crop for at least 3,000 years, and maybe longer. Prior
to that it is certain that the seeds of wild cacao trees were gathered. Initially a few
cacao trees would be planted just inside the heavy rain forest,, mixed with both
wild and cultivated under-story plants. Eventually that grew to more specific plots
of cacao, still under the canopy and within the rain forest.

The people who first utilized cacao were the inhabitants of what is now Venezuela
in northwestern South America, where the tree is native. It is thought that they
created cacao as we know it. The Olmec Civilization (3,500 to 2,500 years ago)
consumed the beverage and it was used to fortify soldiers during marches and in
battle.

Cacao was highly valued by these people and they spread it northward through
trade with their neighbors. It was probably the Maya, over 1,500 years ago, who
brought cacao to Yucatan in what is now Mexico. Maya urns were often decorated
with images of cacao pods. The Aztecs obtained cacao from the Maya, and used it
in a variety of ways. One common way was as a bitter spice in food (such as
today's Molé sauce). The common people often used cacao as a spice, and
possibly also as a base for pasta or bread.

The most well known way that cacao was used (and the way that made the deepest
impression on the European conquerors) was as a drink. The beans were toasted,
ground up, put in hot water and often a bit of maize, vanilla, or chilies were added
to create the beverage of the Emperor. The water had to be extremely hot for the
mixture to work, and from that came the phrase, still used in Mexico, "Like Water
for Chocolate", to mean as hot as anything you can imagine. It seems likely that
consumption of this drink was limited to nobility, priesthood, and ritual
occasions.

Cacao seeds were valued so highly throughout Mesoamerica that they were used
for centuries as currency.

The word cacao comes from the Mayan plant "Cacau". Because of a spelling error,
these beans became known as cocoa plant "Cacau". These beans became known
as cocoa beans.

When Europeans first made contact with the Aztec civilization, cacao was being
cultivated and used extensively. The Spanish Conquistadors quickly noticed the
benefits of chocolate and used it to keep their armies marching long distances with
little food. From the Aztecs the Spanish took it to Europe -- where it became part of
the then European-wide Imperial quest for more drugs for the polite high society,
competing with the British tea and opium, the catholic countries' coffee and the
young USA's tobacco.

There is a great deal of differing information about the arrival of Cacao in Europe.
Some sources say that Columbus himself brought the first beans. Others say it
was Cortes, and a whole list of others have their supporters. Although almost every
country claims to have been the first in Europe to utilize chocolate, the Spanish
seem to have been the first. There has been the suggestion that Spain kept it a
secret for 100 years.

Initially (in the 1500s), Europeans, primarily the Spanish, were put off by the drinks'
traditional spicy bitter flavor, so they began adding European (and recent American
import) flavorings to chocolate, such as vanilla, cinnamon, black pepper, and cane
sugar.

Chocolate was widely used in Catholic countries after 1569 when Pope Pius V
declared that chocolate (the drink) did not break the fast -- despite the hearty
nutritional aspects of Chocolate. Every Pope for 190 years after him, from Gregory
XIII to Benedict XIV affirmed this decision -- the Popes loved Chocolate. It became a
popular way to nourish oneself on the many religious fast days. This may have
reached it's climax when Pope Clement XIV was killed with a cup of poisoned
Chocolate in 1774.

By the middle of the 1600s, chocolate houses had opened in Europe; this is before
coffee houses started up. Chocolate houses became social clubs, meeting places
for the elite, places to visit and to talk politics. It was trendy and extremely
expensive. Coffee was much cheaper and therefore, not for the elite, but for the
masses. Coffee houses inherited the popularity, the community and the political
atmosphere from chocolate houses when the invention of the Dutch press removed
the narcotic effect. The coffee house culture went on to incubate the democratic
political movements of the 18th & 19th centuries.

As Chocolate spread out of Spain, Hapsburg possessions remained at the forefront
of Chocolate manufacturing and use. This included Austria and the Spanish
Netherlands (which are today Holland and, the world center for chocolate,
Belgium). Hapsburg Emperor, Charles VI, transferred his court from Madrid to
Vienna in 1711, which advanced the use of chocolate in Austria. However, in 1810
one third of the world's entire cacao production was consumed by Spain.
Venezuela had 50% of world production. Germany surpassed Spain for the world
lead in chocolate consumption only in 1900.

At this time the way they made the chocolate drink was to grind the whole bean and
add sugar and hot water. In 1828 the Dutch developed a press to force about 50%,
and with improvements, 98% of the fat out of cacao paste -- producing the powder
which we are familiar with today. The powder was then mixed with milk, instead of
water, to add a little fat, but not nearly as much as was removed (3% vs. 54%). The
pressing process also produced a major commercially viable by-product, cocoa
butter.

Twenty years later at the Joseph Fry factory, they discovered a way to mix melted
cocoa butter back into Dutch powder to create a gooey mass which could be
molded, hence, the first bar chocolate. In 1875 two Swiss men, Daniel Peter and
Henri Nestlé, used the sweetened condensed milk they had developed for
concentrated infant food formula in to create milk-chocolate. The low water content
of the milk made it possible to mix it with the chocolate into a bar that did not spoil
quickly. Rudolphe Lindt developed the conching process in Switzerland in 1879,
producing for the first time, smooth creamy chocolate bars like we are familiar with
today.

The New World, Mexico and Costa Rica, but primarily Venezuela, was the main
supplier of cacao until the start of the 20th century when the center of cultivation
moved first to the Caribbean and then to Africa (with some also in Asia). In the late
19th century major companies started growing cacao on large plantations,
generally clearing rainf forests to provide open land. It was at this time that the
extremely low pollination rate of cacao (1 in 3000) was noticed, but no one paid any
attention to it. Scientific sources suggest this was a natural phenomenon, when in
fact, moving Cacao from the rain forest to plantations took it farther away from it's
pollinating midges' habitat.

Many of the companies that started making chocolate in the late 19th century,
including Hersheys & Cadbury, were based on religious ideals of abstaining from
alcohol -- Chocolate was seen as an acceptable substitute.

There are various suggestions of when Chocolate was introduced into the USA,
ranging from the early 1700s to the late 1800s. It is suspected to be earlier, rather
than later, due to the proximity to the plantations. In 1900 Milton Snavely Hershey,
a Mennonite from Pennsylvania, began producing milk-chocolate bars and "kisses"
with great success. In less than ten years he was able to buy two entire towns and
name them after himself. The empire grew even larger during World War I, when it
is said that Milton Hershey encouraged the US Army to add four Hershey bars to
each soldiers daily ration.

Chocolate remained popular in Europe, and after World War II many Belgian and
French chocolatiers specialized making fine, high grade chocolate. Eventually, in
1994, the chocolate war established standards and started the huge wave of pure
chocolate bars made of 70% or more cacao.