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Chocolate and longevity
There is little research of the relation of cacao and longevity, but a book published in 1903 declares that it is as nutritional for older people as it is for young people and there was interesting evidence in the fact that the first English person born in Jamaica, colonel Montague James, that lived to the age of one hundred and four years, barely drank any other drink during the last thirty years of his life.
The Aztecs also attributed diverse medicinal properties to cacao because they believed, amongst other things, that the ground cacao seeds near the bones of their ancestor’s, cured diarrhea; and in the XVII century, the Spanish women that lived in Mexico believed that ground cacao to the texture of a paste mixed with chili was good for the stomach and good for fighting off colds.
But perhaps one of the most unusual medical chocolate uses was as a remedy for hangovers. On the night of the coronation of King Charles II of England, Samuel Pepys was very drunk and the next day he wrote in his diary that he had gotten up in the morning with a sad head caused by drinking the night before and for which he was distressed. So he had gone out with Mr. Creed to drink some of the their morning drink, that Mr. Creed had given him in chocolate to relieve his stomach.
While it is true that chocolate contains a very small amount of caffeine, the main stimulant in it is theobromine that does not have as strong an effect on the central nervous system as does caffeine. It is a drink that is able to lift a person up without all of the toxic effects that frequently appear and are associated with caffeine. There are people however, that assure it causes headaches and migraines, for which it is not recommendable to feed it to hyperactive children.
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