By David Wolfe (davidwolfe.com) author of Naked Chocolate

1. Chocolate is actually a nut! All chocolate is made from the large seed (nut) of the cacao fruit. This nut is called the cacao bean or cocoa bean. It is about the size of an almond and contains proteins and oils, yet no sugar. Cacao is pronounced [ka-kow].

Theobroma Cacao Flower

2. Chocolate is a weight-loss food. Chocolate is the number one appetite suppressant of any natural food. This is why all diet fads always include some kind of chocolate snack. Producers of these foods would include chocolate even if people did not love it because chocolate is such a powerful appetite suppressant. Special note: the dairy milk and sugars added to some chocolate products are fattening and should be avoided. This is why I only recommend pure raw chocolate products and cacao beans.

3. Chocolate contains relatively little caffeine. The actual caffeine content of cacao beans is twenty times less than coffee.

4. Chocolate nuts (cacao beans) were used as money in ancient Mexico. When the conquistador Cortes came into Tenochtitlan (present-day Mexico city) the city was lined in gold and silver, yet they used cacao beans (chocolate!) as currency!

The daily wage of a porter in central Mexico was 100 cacao beans, which puts into perspective the following partial list of commodity prices in the city of Tlaxcala, from a Aztec document circa 1545:

• One good turkey hen is worth 100 full cacao beans, or 120 shrunken beans.
• A turkey is worth 200 cacao beans.
• A hare [jackrabbit] or forest rabbit is worth 100 cacao beans each.
• A small rabbit is worth 30 cacao beans.
• One turkey egg is worth 3 cacao beans.
• An avocado newly picked is worth 3 cacao beans; when an avocado is fully ripe it will be equivalent to one cacao bean.
• One large tomato will be equivalent to a cacao bean.
• A large sapote fruit, or two small ones, is equivalent to a cacao bean.
• A large axolotl [larval salamander, an Aztec delicacy] is worth 4 cacao beans, a small one is worth 2 or 3 cacao beans.
• A tamale is exchanged for a cacao bean.
• A fish wrapped in maize husks is worth 3 cacao beans.

5. Chocolate nuts (cacao beans) are actually good for your teeth and your bones. Chocolate is an extraordinary source of phosphorous and magnesium which are essential to health teeth and bones. The consumption of chocolate products improves oral health and decreases cavities. Research has shown that the chemical theobromine in cacao kills the organisms that cause cavities and helps to prevent tooth decay.

Theobroma Cacao Pod

6. Chocolate is a health food! Chocolate is the richest dietary source of the mineral magnesium found in any common food. Magnesium is an alkaline mineral that helps keep the body flexible and free of waste products. Cacao beans are the richest source of antioxidants of any major food. Cacao beans have ten times more antioxidants than blueberries, twenty times more than red wine and thirty times more than green tea!

7. We can save the planet with chocolate. Creating demand for more chocolate helps save the rainforest! Chocolate (cacao) trees can only be grown in an uncleared, natural rainforest environment. They cannot grow where the jungle has been cut down. Organic cacao is not only grown in a natural rainforest environment but also without harmful chemicals.

8. Chocolate is a love food and a brain food. Phenylethylamine (PEA) compounds are abundant in chocolate. PEAs have been shown to create feelings similar to being in love and to fill the empty space left by lost love. PEA also helps to increase our ability to concentrate and focus.