Research

Chocolate Research


For the research of chocolate, we thought we could use different statistics to support the subject and show relevance to the audience. I first found some strange uses of chocolate which would make the audience interested.

- The Aztecs once used cocoa beans as a form of currency
- Extracts of cocoa have been recently found to be more effective than fluride and used in toothpaste.
- Dark chocolate is rich in flavanols that improve the circulation of blood around the body.
- Chocolate is used in spa treatments as they contain antioxidant, these include a chocolate fondue wrap and a chocolate bean polish
- It is used to make perfume, which claims to contain a male aphrodisiac that makes you thin.


Also I found some strange facts about chocolate which again we could use to support the subject and entertain the audience.

Chocolate is responsible for the microwave as scientists were experimenting with radio active waves and on one occassion, someone walked through with a bar of chocolate in his pocket, realising you could cook food.
American chocolate companies use 1.5 billion pounds of milk per year.
Dogs can become addictive to chocolate, which explains one of the reasons why they cant eat chocolate other than health reasons.

Because parts of our documentary are talking about how chocolate was in the war, with the rationing and lack of sugar, butter, etc. We thought that we could find some old posters from that time to show relevance and support what were talking about. And then also the background of chocolate, how it was discovered, how it was made and when was the first chocolate bar?




Cocoa trees grew wild in the jungle, and they used them to make a spicy, rather bitter drink for special occasions. Centuries later the Aztec Empire fell, and the Conquistador Hernan Cortés brought cocoa beans back across the ocean to Spain.

Gradually chocolate spread across Europe – it was the fashionable choice of Kings and Queens, the nobility and the rich, just like caviar or champagne today. At the end of the 19th Century milk was added, and at last someone devised a way of making chocolate to eat as well as to drink. But it wasn’t until the 20th century that chocolate became affordable for everyone.
Cocoa trees grew wild in the jungle, and they used them to make a spicy, rather bitter drink for special occasions. Centuries later the Aztec Empire fell, and the Conquistador Hernan Cortés brought cocoa beans back across the ocean to Spain.

Chocolate arrived in England in the 1650s and the aromatic drink became hugely popular in King Charles II’s court. But you’d have to be rich to drink it – high import duties on cocoa beans meant that it was expensive.

Gradually it started to become more widely available. In 1657 London’s very first Chocolate House was advertised: ‘In Bishopsgate Street, in Queen’s Head Alley, at a Frenchman’s house, is an excellent West Indian drink called Chocolate to be sold, where you may have it ready at any time and also unmade at reasonable rates.’

18th century France produced pastilles (tablets) and bars, but it wasn’t until Bristol company Fry & Son made a ‘chocolate delicieux a manger’ in 1847 that the first bar of chocolate as we know it today appeared.

It was a mixture of cocoa powder and sugar with a little of the melted cocoa butter that had been extracted from the beans. The result was a bar that could be moulded. It might have been coarse and bitter by today’s standards, but it was still a revolution.

Moulded into blocks and bars, and poured over fruit-flavoured centres, this plain chocolate was a real breakthrough. But there was more to follow.

In 1875, a Swiss manufacturer called Daniel Peter added powdered milk to make the first milk chocolate bar.

It wasn’t a completely new idea – Cadbury produced their milk chocolate drink based on Sir Hans Sloane’s recipe between 1849 and 1875. And Cadbury added their own milk chocolate bars in 1897.

But Daniel Peter was still way ahead of them – using condensed milk rather than powdered milk to produce a chocolate with a superior taste and texture. Another Swiss manufacturer had invented the conching machine in 1879. This refined chocolate, giving it the smooth texture we know today.

Swiss milk chocolate dominated the British market – a situation the Cadbury family set out to challenge in the 20th Century.

We also found some archieve footage of old adverts the compare with new adverts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWaPRsBu014 - Old Milky Bar Advert
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr_J0mV5LrU&feature=fvst - Recent Dairy Milk advert.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvIC00EqJT0 - Marathon Bar advert from the 1980's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t9ZJK-vc-I - Cadburys Whole Nut bar.

HEALTH EFFECTS

Chocolate includes both positive and negitive health effects. Some positive effects include:

brain stimulator
cough preventer
antidiarrhoeal effects.
However if chocolate is eaten in large quantities then it can lead to obesity, it has also been shown to include addictive effects.

Other effects include a increase in brain activity and heart rate that, according to one study by Dr. David Lewis of the Mind Lab, was more intense and lasted longer than a kiss. Some studies have also shown that a daily intake of dark chocolate produced a reduction in "blood pressure and flow meditated dilation". However milk and white chocolate does not have the same effect.


The fat in chocolate consists of mono-unsaturated fat oleic acid, saturated fat stearic acid and saturated fat palmitic acid. Stearic acid however does not raise LDL cholesterol in the bloodstream, unlike other saturated fats. Also, a large intake of cocoa and dark chocolate do not raise LDL cholestrol levels, some studies have shown that not only can they perhaps lower them but also lower the risk of heart attacks. Another study performed in Stockholm at the Karolinska Institue found that heart attack survivors who ate chocolate two or more times per week cut the risk of dying from disease by about three times.


A study conducted by James Madison University that was presented at an annual meeting at the American College of Sports Medicine shown that consumption of low fat chocolate milk post exercise provided equal or superior muscle recovery when comparing to a high carbonhydrate recovery drink with an equal amount of calories. Athletes that consumed chocolate milk had lower levels of creatine kinase when compared to drinkers of a carbohydrate beverage.


Scientists speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2007 showed results from early studies testing the effects of flavonals (which is found in cocoa) and claimed that a specially formulated type of cocoa may boost brain function and delay decline as people age.


It has been reported that many chocolate products have traces of lead, although the beans absorb little lead it tends to bind to cocoa shells and contamination may occur during the manufacturing process. A USDA study from 2004 the average mean lead levels in chocolate samples ranged from 0.0010 to 0.0965 μg lead per gram.


Chocolate includes theobromine which can be toxic to some animals like horses and dogs. When fed chocolate can remain in their bloodstream for up to 20 hours and could result in epileptic seizures, internal bleeding, heart attacks and death.