Any advertisement of chocolate is incomplete without the inclusion of a woman in some manner. Of course, this is true of all products but more so for chocolate. Some show eating a chocolate as the original sin and of course, the woman succumbs to its temptation. Others show a woman with the slimmest figure possible eating bars of chocolate. Welcome to the fantasy world of women chocaholics.

Long time ago before chocolate got its reputation as being a villain in the hour glass figure world, chocolates and flowers were the safest options for a man’s gift to a woman. Not any more. Thanks to women’s empowerment and the increasing consciousness of ones figure, chocolate is no longer regarded as the best gift. And if you give sugar free or low calorie chocolate then all hell will break lose. The woman is sure to misread it to mean that she is overweight. So, does this all mean that women don’t eat chocolate any more? Absolutely not! They do and more and more women are eating more and more chocolate. The models that you see are not the representative of all women. They are a very small minority. Ask any single women and they will tell you that chocolates are their best companions. Women eat chocolate like men drink alcohol. They eat chocolate when they are happy. They eat it when they are sad or depressed. They eat it when they have nothing else to do. Eating a chocolate brings in a feeling of security that can be only equated to having chicken soup. But, of course eating a bar of chocolate is easier than making chicken soup.

So, makers of chocolate do not worry your market is not going anywhere except to the nearest shop to get a chocolate bar.


tags: chocolate, chocolate bar, women and chocolate, advertising and women, women eat chocolate

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When we hear the word chocoholic or chocaholics it brings a smile to our faces. I know it definitely brings delight, and a smile to my face. Definitely different from the reaction to the other “holicâ€?, alcoholic which definitely doesn’t bring a smile to anyone’s face, especially if the drunk is behind the wheel. Drunks bring danger to themselves, and everyone else around them. Being an alcoholic has the potential to bring violence, and second degree murder (driving drunk, and killing people). Support MADD, and DON’T BE AN ALCOHOLIC. If you need help with substance abuse, or believe someone close to you needs help with substance abuse, please help yourself, or help them. There are a number treatment centers out there. Some are free, and some are not.

So, why is it that chocoholics are a cause of so much humor? For starters nobody imagines a chocoholic drunk on chocolate staggering through the door. No, that is not the image that a chocoholic portrays. Rather a chocoholic portrays the image of being in control of everything else but, chocolate. And, that is not seen as a very bad thing only as a small weakness.

The other issue is gender. When you imagine an alcoholic you picture a man with a bottle in his hand hurling abuses at his wife and children. Not a flattering picture at all. But, when you imagine a chocoholic you imagine a small petite woman, pleasantly plump with a smile on her face eating her chocolate. She is absolutely harmless to anyone in the society. But, of course these are just stereotypes because there are equal number of women out there who suffer from addiction to alcohol and equal number of men who are self confessed chocoholics.

So, isn’t addiction to chocolate a bad thing? Definitely yes! In fact it is not something to laugh about at all. Addiction to anything can never be a good thing. And however much the lovers of chocolate might shout about its health benefits, there has not been any conclusive evidence to prove that it is so. So, it is always best to stick to eating moderate amounts of chocolate rather make it your staple food.

tags: alcoholism, chocaholic, chocoholic, chocolate, MADD, alcohol and violence, DWI, DUI, alcohol and drug abuse treatment, alcohol treatment centers, betty ford clinic, free alcoholic treatment

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For your edification I go over the process of Cacao Tree growth, and maturity. And those of you that are not interested, skip the section, and move on to the next about cacao beans, and consumption.

The cacao tree starts bearing fruits, when it is around four or five years old. The flowers of a cacao tree are so small that unless you are looking for it you are liable to miss it. The bud takes at least six month to mature into a fruit. A fully grown fruit is about six to ten inches long and three to four inches in diameter. From the fruits, we harvest the cocoa beans / seeds. Removing a portion of the thick husk shows that the seeds are covered with a pulp. The oval-shaped cocoa beans are about one and a quarter inches long and vary in color from white to purple. Dried and fermented cocoa beans can weigh from one-twentieth to one-thirtieth of an ounce.

Many people like to eat raw cocoa bean. It can be eaten before or after fermentation depending on your preference. The problem with fermented bean is that they lose some of the nutritional substance during the fermented process. On the other hand the raw cocoa beans have a bitter taste.

tags: cacao tree, cacao beans, cocoa beans, chocolate, fermentation

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