10 Things You Didn't Know About Chocolate

10 Things You Didn't Know About Chocolate

 

For many of us, life without chocolate is difficult to imagine. But it was only as recently as the Victorian era that the chocolate bar was invented. Read on to discover more about the history of one of Britain's best-loved foods.

 

1. Origins

The ancient Maya and Aztec civilizations in Central America were the world's first chocolate lovers. Cocoa trees grew wild in the tropical rainforests of the Amazon basin and the Maya and Aztecs used the beans to make a much-prized spicy drink, which they called "chocolatl".

 

2. Meaning

In Nahuatl, the Aztec language, chocolatl means "bitter water". A related Nahuatl word, cacao (source of the English word cocoa), refers to the bean itself.

 

3. Chocolate in Europe

It was the Spanish Conquistador, Don Hernán Cortés, who first realized the commercial value of chocolate. He brought cocoa beans back to Spain in 1528 and very gradually the custom of drinking chocolate spread across Europe. In 1657 the first of many drinking-houses where the new liquid-chocolate was enjoyed appeared in England.

 

4. Eating chocolate

Until the early Victorian times chocolate was exclusively for drinking, then a technique for making solid "eating" chocolate was devised. The inventor of "eating chocolate" is unknown but the first solid chocolate was sold in 1847 by Fry & Sons of Bristol.

 

5. Milk and white chocolate

In 1875 a Swiss manufacturer, Daniel Peters of Vevey, Switzerland, produced the first milk chocolate bar by successfully finding a way to combine chocolate and milk. White chocolate, which is technically not chocolate as it does not contain any cocoa liquor, was not invented until the 1930s.

 

6. Swiss chocolate

The Swiss consume more chocolate than any other population in the world. On average, each person consumes around 9 kg (20 lbs) each year! Perhaps this isn't really surprising—famous Swiss chocolate makers include Rodolphe Lindt, Henri Nestlé, Philippe Suchard, Jean Tobler (founder of the Toblerone brand), and Charles Amédée Kohler (the first to add hazelnuts to chocolate).

 

7. Chocolate boxes

Richard Cadbury introduced the first ever chocolate box in 1868. He also introduced the first ever chocolate boxes for Valentine's Day, thereby starting the tradition of giving chocolate as a token of love on February 14.

 

8. Making chocolate

The harvesting of cocoa pods is very labour intensive. The pods are split open by hand and the beans needed to make chocolate are removed to be fermented and dried. They are then sent to chocolate manufacturing companies, where they are roasted and ground in large mills until they become a thick brown liquid. This cocoa mass is the basis of all chocolate and cocoa products.

 

9. Producing chocolate

African countries harvest about two-thirds of the total world output of cocoa beans. At the start of the twenty-first century the Côte d'Ivoire was the world's greatest cocoa-bean producing nation.

 

10. Health

A chemical in chocolate—theobromine—is toxic to dogs and cats. For humans, chocolate contains only a small amount of nutrients and has a high fat content. However, the presence of antioxidants in dark chocolate means that it has recently been promoted for its health benefits.

 

10 Mini Mysteries

10 Mini Mysteries

 

1. Why is Friday the 13th unlucky?

The number 13 has long been stigmatized. In an ancient Norse myth, a dinner party of 12 is interrupted when a 13th guest crashes the event and kills the god of joy and gladness. Within Christian traditions, too, 13 is an unlucky number to have at a dinner party—there were 13 people at the Last Supper of Jesus Christ. And to top it all, a correctly tied hangman’s noose has 13 knots.
Meanwhile, Friday also carries negative connotations. Eve was rumoured to have given Adam the apple on Friday, thus bringing about the downfall of mankind. And to make matters worse, Jesus was crucified on a Friday. It is no wonder then, that when the two are combined, Friday the 13th is considered so unlucky that many people decide to stay at home.

2. Why do we drive on the left-hand side of the road in the UK?

The most common explanation for this British law again arises from the Middle Ages. The theory goes that knights riding on horseback would have wanted to keep their right hand, usually their sword hand, exposed to oncomers so that they would be prepared to attack. They would therefore keep to the left when travelling. This custom was transferred to the modern road and crystallized in the Highway Act of 1835, which declared a 20s or 40s fine for drivers not keeping the left or near side.

3. Why do we have bad breath in the mornings?

Almost everybody wakes up with bad breath. The unpleasant smell comes from bacteria living in your mouth. The bacteria are in fact in your mouth day and night, but while you’re sleeping, the flow of saliva—and thus oxygen—decreases greatly. This allows the anaerobic bacteria to multiply, feeding on leftover food particles and skin cells. The waste product of this process often contains sulphur, and this is what smells so unpleasant.

4. Why do we blush?

When you’re embarrassed or ashamed, your body releases a tiny amount of adrenalin. Adrenalin causes blood vessels in your face to dilate, allowing more blood to flow to your cheeks. This causes reddening, or blushing. Sociologically, blushing may be useful as a means of communication, as it can act as a wordless signal. For example, if we blush when we’re attracted to someone, we are allowing what’s on our mind to be known without having to say a thing.

5. Why do onions make you cry?

When you slice through an onion, you cause a series of chemical reactions to occur within its cells. A gas called propanethiol S-oxide is released into the air and travels upwards into your eyes. The gas then reacts with the water in your eyes to form a mild sulphuric acid, which causes itchiness. Your brain reacts by producing more water, or tears, to dilute the irritant and protect your eyes.

6. Why are wedding rings worn on the fourth finger?

There was an ancient belief that a vein, known as the vena amoris (vein of love), ran directly from the fourth finger of the left hand to the heart. It was thought that this direct blood-flow to the heart made it the perfect candidate for a wedding ring, as it solidified the union of love. However, in reality the veins running from the fourth finger are no different from those of any other finger, and it seems as if shrewd marketing, hearsay, and tradition have designated the fourth finger as the “ring finger”.

7. Why do geese fly in a “V” formation?

Because the one in the front has the map J.

When geese fly in a flock, they tend to form a “V” shape, with each bird flying slightly higher than the one in front of it. This causes a reduction in wind resistance, making the flock more aerodynamic and allowing those flying at the back of the formation to glide easily. The birds take it in turns to fall to the back, meaning that as a group they are able to fly for longer. Another benefit of the V shape is that every bird is visible and easy to track. For the same reason, fighter pilots use this “squadron” formation.

8. Why do gentlemen prefer blondes?

The science behind what people find attractive remains largely theoretical. However, a consensus emerges among theorists: We are generally attracted to people who are most likely to protect and preserve our genes as a human race. For example, we are more likely to be attracted to a healthy young face than an old diseased one because this increases the chances of producing healthy offspring. Following this theory, it is believed by some that the reason blonde hair, which is much rarer than brown or black hair, is deemed more attractive is due to a subconscious human desire for a bigger, and therefore healthier, gene pool.

9. Why are there seven days a week?

The root of our seven-day week lies in Babylonian mathematics. The Babylonians realized that a lunar cycle, i.e. a month, was 27.25 days long. However, they also realized that the number 28 is a perfect number—it is the sum of all the numbers that divide into it (1+2+4+7+14 = 28). They therefore designated a month as 28 days long, and eventually chose to split it into four cycles of seven days, giving us our seven-day week.

10. Why do we shake hands with people?

The origin of the handshake lies in medieval history. By offering a right hand to a stranger, a hand that could otherwise be used to draw a sword, men were overtly displaying their intentions of peace towards one another. Nowadays, from signing a treaty to settling a bet with friends, “shaking on it” remains a symbolic sign of agreement.

10 Things You Didn't Know About Sleep

10 Things You Didn't Know About Sleep

 

1. Your alarm is set for 6 a.m.—why do you wake up at 5:59 a.m.? The body's internal alarm clock, which enables some people to wake up naturally at the time they desire, is triggered by the stress hormone adrenocorticotropin. The levels of this hormone begin to rise an hour or two before an expected wake-up call, to prepare the body gradually for the stress of waking up.

2. A six-year study of a million adults showed that people who get only six to seven hours of sleep a night have a lower death rate than those who get eight hours.

3. In 1964, 17-year-old Randy Gardner stayed awake for 264 hours and 12 minutes, the officially recognized world record. He then slept for 15 hours—not a record, but not bad.

4. In a gesture of integration with the European Union, Spain has launched a campaign to eliminate the tradition of siestas, or afternoon naps.

5. Thanks in part to their afternoon naps, Spaniards sleep an average of 40 minutes less per night than other Europeans. Spain also has the highest rate of workplace accidents in the EU and the third lowest productivity rate.

6. A 2002 study by Oxford University researchers concluded, brilliantly, that the traditional practice of counting sheep is an ineffective cure for insomnia. The mental activity is so boring that other problems and concerns inevitably surface.

7. A Muslim couple in India is being forced to split up after the husband uttered the word "talaq," the Arabic word for divorce, three times in his sleep. According to Muslim law, the "triple talaq" is an actual divorce.

8. Dreaming is related to bursts of electrical activity that blow through the brain stem every 90 minutes during REM sleep. Over a lifetime, an average person spends more than six years dreaming, clocking more than 136,000 dreams in all. But nobody knows why we dream.

9. Mattresses have an average life span of eight to 10 years. They grow some nasty stuff in that time; one study links mattress bacteria to sudden infant death syndrome.

10. Somniphobia is the fear of sleep.