Part 15 (2/2)
We have noted above the high percentage of nutrients which cocoa contains, and the research conducted by J. Forster[1] shows that these nutrients are easily a.s.similated. Forster found that the fatty and mineral const.i.tuents of cocoa are both _completely_ digested, and the nitrogenous const.i.tuents are digested in the same proportion as in finest bread, and more completely than in bread of average quality. One very striking fact was revealed by his researches, namely, that the consumption of cocoa increases the digestive power for other foods which are taken at the same time, and that this increase is particularly evident with milk. Dr. R.O. Neumann[2] (who fed himself with cocoa preparations for over twelve weeks), whilst not agreeing with this conclusion, states that: ”The consumption of cocoa from the point of view of health leaves nothing to be desired. The taking of large or small quant.i.ties of cocoa, either rich or poor in fat, with or without other food, gave rise to no digestive troubles during the 86 days which formed the duration of the experiments.” He considers that cocoas containing a high percentage of cacao b.u.t.ter are preferable to those which contain low percentages, and that a 30 per cent. b.u.t.ter content meets all requirements. It is worthy of note that 28 to 30 per cent. is the quant.i.ty of b.u.t.ter found in ordinary high-cla.s.s cocoas.
[1] _Hygienische Rundschau_, 1900, p. 305.
[2] _Die Bewertung des Kakaos als Nahrungs- und Genussmittel_, 1906.
As experts are liable to disagree, and it is almost possible to prove anything by a judicious selection from their writings, it may be well to give an extract from some modern text book as more nearly expressing the standard opinion of the times. In _Second Stage Hygiene_, by Mr. Ikin and Dr. Lyster, a text book written for the Board of Education Syllabus, we read, p. 96: ”... in the better cocoas the greater part of the fat is removed by heat and pressure. In this form cocoa may be looked upon as almost an ideal food, as it contains proteids, fats, and carbohydrates in roughly the right proportions. Prepared with milk and sugar it forms a highly nutritious and valuable stimulating beverage.”
_Stimulating Property of Cocoa._
The mild stimulating property which cocoa possesses is due to the presence of the two substances, theobromine and caffein. The presence of theobromine is peculiar to cocoa, but caffein is a stimulating principle which also occurs in tea and coffee. Whilst in the quant.i.ties in which they are present in cocoa (about 1.5 per cent. of theobromine and 0.6 per cent. of caffein) they act only as agreeable stimulants, in the pure condition, as white crystalline powders, they are powerful curative agents. Caffein is well known as a specific for nervous headaches, and as a heart stimulant and diuretic. Theobromine is similar in action, but has the advantage for certain cases, that it has much less effect on the central nervous system, and for this reason it is a very valuable medicine for sufferers from heart dropsy, and as a tonic for senile heart. That its medicinal properties are appreciated is shown by its price: during 1918 the retail price was about 8 s.h.i.+llings an ounce, from which we can calculate that every pound of cocoa contained nearly two s.h.i.+llingsworth of theobromine.
_”Soluble” Cocoa._
Whilst Forster states that treated cocoa is the most digestible, experts are not in agreement as to which is the more valuable foodstuff, the pure untouched cocoa, or that which is treated during its manufacture with alkaline salts. The cocoa so treated is generally described as ”soluble,” although its only claim to this name is that the mineral salts in the cocoa are rendered more soluble by the treatment. It is also sometimes incorrectly described as containing alkali, but actually no alkali is present in the cocoa either in a free state or as carbonate; the pota.s.sium exists ”in the form of phosphates or combinations of organic acids, that is to say, in the ideal form in which these bodies occur in foods of animal and vegetable origin”
(Fritsch, _Fabrication du Chocolat_, p. 216).
[Ill.u.s.tration: BOXING CHOCOLATES.]
_Food Value of Chocolate._
I ate a little chocolate from my supply, well knowing the miraculous sustaining powers of the simple little block (from _Mr. Isaacs_, by F. Marion Crawford).
Whilst the food value of cocoa powder is very high the drink prepared from it can only be regarded as an accessory food, because it is usual to take the powder in small quant.i.ties--just as with beef-tea it is usual to take only a small portion of an ox in a tea-cup--but chocolate is often eaten in considerable quant.i.ties at a time, and must therefore be regarded as an important foodstuff, and not considered, as it frequently is considered, simply as a luxury.
The eating of cacao mixed with sugar dates from very early days, but it is only in recent times that it has become the princ.i.p.al sweetmeat. What would a ”sweetshop” be to-day without chocolate, that summit of the confectioner's art, when the rich brown of chocolate is the predominant note in every confectioner's window? What would the lovers in England do without chocolates, which enable them to indulge their delight in giving that which is sure to be well received?
As a luxury it is universally appreciated, and because of this appreciation its value as a food is sometimes overlooked.
During the war chocolate was valued as a compact foodstuff, which is easily preserved. Dr. Gastineau Earle, lecturing for the Inst.i.tute of Hygiene in 1915 on ”Food Factor in War,” said: ”Chocolate is a most valuable concentrated food, especially when other foods are not available; it is the chief const.i.tuent of the emergency ration.” Its importance as a concentrated foodstuff was appreciated in the United States, for every ”comfort kit” made up for the American soldiers fighting in the war contained a cake of sweet chocolate.
There are a number of records of people whose lives have been preserved by means of chocolate. One of the most recent was the case of Commander Stewart, who was torpedoed in H.M.S. ”Cornwallis” in the Mediterranean in 1917. He happened to have in his cabin one of the boxes of chocolate presented to the Army and Navy in 1915 by the colonies of Trinidad, Grenada, and St. Lucia, who gave the cacao and paid English manufacturers to make it into chocolate. He had been treasuring the box as a souvenir, but being the only article of food available, he filled his pockets with the chocolate, which sustained him through many trying hours.[3]
[3] See _West India Committee Journal_, p. 55, 1917.
We have already seen the high food value of the cacao bean: what of the sugar which chocolate contains? Sugar is consumed in large quant.i.ties in England, the consumption per head amounting to 80-90 lbs. per year. It is well known as a giver of heat and energy, and Sir Ernest Shackleton reports that it proved a great life preserver and sustainer in Arctic regions. Our practical acquaintance with sugar commences at birth--milk containing about 5 per cent. of milk sugar--and when one considers the amazing activity of young children one understands their continuous demand for sugar. Dr. Hutchison, in his well-known _Food and the Principles of Dietetics_, says: ”The craving for sweets which children show is, no doubt, the natural expression of a physiological need, but they should be taken with, and not between, meals. Chocolate is one of the most wholesome and nutritious forms of such sweets.”
Both the const.i.tuents of chocolate being nouris.h.i.+ng, it follows that chocolate itself has a high food value. This is proved by the figures given below.
As with cocoa, we have first to know the composition before we can calculate the food value. The relative proportions of nib, b.u.t.ter and sugar, vary considerably in ordinary chocolate, so that it is difficult to give an average composition: there are sticks of eating chocolate which contain as little as 24 per cent. of cacao b.u.t.ter, whilst chocolate used for covering contains about 36 per cent. of b.u.t.ter.
As modern high-cla.s.s eating chocolate contains about 31 per cent. of b.u.t.ter, we will take this for purposes of calculation:
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