- Joined
- Apr 3, 2021
A few times in my life I have been obsessed with trying to solve this puzzle.
First one was a few years ago, before I even knew that I would be going to graduate school. I spent hours at the local organic farmers market, reading food labels and trying to figure out what they were really full of. At the same time I was reading every book I could get my hands on about the history of nutrition.
Eventually I came to realize that when people say chocolate is filled with "real" chocolate, they are not saying it contains cocoa but that it contains cacao and/or cocoa butter.
To me, the question is one of definitions.
The definition of what is "real" chocolate was once, according to my research, a very simple one. Back in the early 1900s, chocolate, and cocoa came from one single source. At that time, cacao trees could only grow in a few regions of Africa. It wasn't until 1908 that cacao seeds were introduced to the American South where the first farmers' markets were launched.
So when people say "this chocolate is made from real chocolate" the word "real" does not mean that the cacao tree has grown out of the soil where the chocolate has been processed or grown on the farms where it has been processed. It means that the seeds that are in the final product have been from a cacao tree that has grown on a plantation.
As the world's population grew and the cacao trees were shipped to places such as Central America and West Africa, the definition of what is "real chocolate" has changed. Some manufacturers still don't use real cacao. They may even use real chocolate, but it might not be "real" chocolate, since it comes from another source.
I was still thinking about this question of "real chocolate" when I decided to do research for my dissertation and stumbled across this article:
The title of the article says it all. "Is Organic Milk Better Than Non-Organic Milk?" What are they talking about? What does this "organic" label really mean?
From the article: "Organic is a broad term, as is its use in our society. It means little, as few if any of the strict federal laws have been passed or adopted by most of the large agricultural states, let alone most of the smaller ones. And with the advent of genetic modification, it has more or less become a meaningless concept, since no organic foods are truly free of GMOs."
I am not sure how this changes the discussion but it seems to imply that organic foods are a better than non-organic foods.
And so that got me to thinking about this:
What is the "real" chocolate? What is chocolate? What are we eating?
First one was a few years ago, before I even knew that I would be going to graduate school. I spent hours at the local organic farmers market, reading food labels and trying to figure out what they were really full of. At the same time I was reading every book I could get my hands on about the history of nutrition.
Eventually I came to realize that when people say chocolate is filled with "real" chocolate, they are not saying it contains cocoa but that it contains cacao and/or cocoa butter.
To me, the question is one of definitions.
The definition of what is "real" chocolate was once, according to my research, a very simple one. Back in the early 1900s, chocolate, and cocoa came from one single source. At that time, cacao trees could only grow in a few regions of Africa. It wasn't until 1908 that cacao seeds were introduced to the American South where the first farmers' markets were launched.
So when people say "this chocolate is made from real chocolate" the word "real" does not mean that the cacao tree has grown out of the soil where the chocolate has been processed or grown on the farms where it has been processed. It means that the seeds that are in the final product have been from a cacao tree that has grown on a plantation.
As the world's population grew and the cacao trees were shipped to places such as Central America and West Africa, the definition of what is "real chocolate" has changed. Some manufacturers still don't use real cacao. They may even use real chocolate, but it might not be "real" chocolate, since it comes from another source.
I was still thinking about this question of "real chocolate" when I decided to do research for my dissertation and stumbled across this article:
The title of the article says it all. "Is Organic Milk Better Than Non-Organic Milk?" What are they talking about? What does this "organic" label really mean?
From the article: "Organic is a broad term, as is its use in our society. It means little, as few if any of the strict federal laws have been passed or adopted by most of the large agricultural states, let alone most of the smaller ones. And with the advent of genetic modification, it has more or less become a meaningless concept, since no organic foods are truly free of GMOs."
I am not sure how this changes the discussion but it seems to imply that organic foods are a better than non-organic foods.
And so that got me to thinking about this:
What is the "real" chocolate? What is chocolate? What are we eating?
