chocolate

[Guest guest]

I have to say that I never ate chocolate at all until " Green and Black "

came out with their Hazelnut and Currant or Maya Gold [ with orange essence

]. I stopped eating choclates because they all had loads of sugar in them

and I don¹t eat sugar. chocolate [ or carob ] without sugar would be

disgusting, either too bitter or too rank with stale vegetable fat.

 

but I trusted Green and Black because it came out of the same stable as

Realeat and Whole Earth [ Greg and Craig Sams ] and those guys were the two

people most singularly responsible for introducing and popularising whole

foods in the UK. practically the first people to do brown rice and bring in

all the Japanese / macrobiotic foods that have become standards. they also

pioneered organic stuff and tried to make every day items like jam,

concentrated fruit juices, baked beans etc sugar free, organic yet

acceptable to Joe Public.

 

let's face it, too many whole and vegan foods are serious punishment and if

it was not for a captive market without options, the manufacturers would

have die a commercial death [ or be hanged for treason if it we lived in

France ] a long time ago. there is a lot of basically very bad food and bad

products out there that are not even really healthy either. most wholefood

shoe leather pastries fall into this category. folks, it really does not

have to be this way.

 

Green and Black have also a good ethical stance to their products which is

why I mention them and ethics in general before talking about food.

 

most high quality [ read Swiss, Belgium, German etc ] chocolate

manufacturers make real dark chocolates with a high proportion of cocoa.

this is the factor on which to judge a chocolate, it should be 70 or 80%

cocoa and cocoa butter, and as near to zero vegetable fat or lecithin. these

are not only vegan but very elegantly wrapped and cool to be seen with. it

is worthy remembering that what are called chocolates in the UK and the USA

would not even be able to be called chocolate legally in Europe - and too

right they are too. no straight bananas or not.

 

[ in joke for Limeys, a couple of years ago, the EU commission decided to

ban bananas that were too straight from the European market perhaps afraid

that the consumer would be confused by their lack of bend and think that

they were something new and different. these are the same type of guys that

have stopped us calling Soya Milk " Milk " and no doubts call their Mother's

Kindness " non soluble fluid nutrition " not to as offend the cowherds ].

 

anyway, back on topic, the ethics of high quality foods are different. on

one hand it is a fair bet that they buy their raw materials from non-ethical

sources although more likely to be controlled. on the other hand, it is the

real thing and generally made by small factories or buy hand and so by

buying them you are supporting real standards and keeping alive worthy old

crafts which is a good thing. buying from mass producers is supporting human

and environmental exploitation by the multinational corporations that

exploit this commodity. yes, with no doubt, slavery - even child slavery -

is alive and well in the 21 st Century and being exploited by the chocolate

producers.

 

surrendering your life to the global factories of the Great Wallmart in the

Sky, eating the crap and lies they feed you in the name of food and economy

is not a good idea. encouraging these people by buying their products is not

a good thing. setting such an example or supporting, is not geat when the

small or old school need your support most. you can also buy " real

chocolate " made with just cocoa and raw sugar from Mexican stores. it comes

in rough sticks that lot like the dog dropped them [ your call on which end

] and is ground as required to make the drink where the whole cult thing

started from.

 

so the gist of this leads to a fairly universal stance, eat small amount of

high quality food from local sources as much as possible. and fruit bars

gives you less zits.

 

deep huh? all you had where the munches and instead you got a PhD in the

Socio-Metastudy of Ethics of Nutrition within the Global Economy. somebody

has bound to have written a book on chocolate.

 

now, if you want a treatise on how to give up chocolate, that is another

thread.

 

john [ - yes, I had a coffee today ].