Guest Opinion: Happy New Year to fellow chocoholics Guest Opinion: Happy New Year to fellow chocoholics (January 19, 2005)

By Kate Daly

Special to the Almanac

Funny how it takes a birthday to reconfirm what you already know but weren't sure everyone else knew -- that you're a raving chocoholic.

Here I am, a week into New Year's resolutions, when everyone else is still adhering to a diet, and I'm staring at not one, but four chocolate birthday cakes, and no fewer than 18 different bars or boxes of chocolates, all given to me as presents.

So this morning, instead of going with my usual suggestion of eating chocolate cake for breakfast (you get your caffeine, carbs, and sugar all in one, plus protein when you wash it all down with nonfat milk, and then you have a chance to work it all off during the day), I'm taking a pass.

Actually, I overdosed on cake the night before, which is the worst time to be eating such calorie-laden food, so the craving is on hiatus. This overindulgence has led me to finding out what exactly it is about chocolate that appeals to so many, and the research has me thinking there are a lot of worse addictions out there.

Chocolate goes back to the ancient Mayan and Aztec cultures, when cacao plant beans were valued as currency. One early drawing showed 100 beans equivalent to buying a slave; so think of it, we've been a slave to chocolate for almost 20 centuries.

Aztec legend had it that cacao seeds arrived from Paradise and that consuming them led to wisdom and power.

Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez said Aztec ruler Montezuma drank 50 flagons of chocolate per day, thinking it cured diarrhea and dysentery, and calling it a "drink that builds up resistance and fights fatigue."

Perhaps this explains why for years I've been giving chocolate to friends recovering from surgery or personal loss. Believing in the cure-all effects of chocolate, I've coined my own saying, "When in doubt, eat chocolate."

Apparently, from early on, chocolate has had a reputation for acting as everything from an antidepressant to an aphrodisiac.

In 1502, Christopher Columbus seized a local vessel off the coast of what is now Honduras, and his son Ferdinand wrote, "When they (the natives) were brought on board ship together with their goods, I observed that when any of these almonds (cacao beans) fell, they all stooped to pick it up, as if an eye had fallen."

An eye toward the ingredients of chocolate gives a somewhat conflicting look at the health benefits.

Chocolate contains hundreds of chemical compounds, including caffeine, theobromine and phenylethylamine -- all known stimulants. The cocoa butter found in chocolate contains saturated fat, which can increase cholesterol levels in blood, yet chocolate also carries high levels of phenolics, which studies indicate may help lower the risk of heart disease.

Now that I'm flirting with 50, I'm reading between the lines of every statistic. Yet, as the card I just received says, "Birthdays are like chocolates ... it's better not to count how many you've had!"

I also received some elegant bars of soap for my birthday. Perhaps that friend is telling me that it's time to clean up my act.

However, I prefer to listen to the older generation, who often tutted the phrase at the dinner table: "Everything in moderation, nothing to excess."

My modern-day interpretation is it's best to parcel out your private chocolate stash to make it last, or better yet, share it with friends.

Kate Daly is an Almanac contributor who lives in Woodside.

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