IN today’s world, chocolate is probably synonymous with diabetes or obesity.
This is mainly due to their notorious reputation for not promoting a healthy lifestyle.
But is it true that things were exactly the opposite some 500 years ago, when chocolates were prescribed by health professionals, not as a bribe for children, but as a prescription?
Verdict:
TRUE
For as long as chocolate has been around, people have believed in its medicinal properties. Chocolate has been used medicinally since at least the 1500s.
The Florentine Codex, compiled by a priest named Bernardino de Sahagún in 1590, mentions that the Aztecs prepared drinks from cocoa mixed with other ingredients to treat many illnesses.
Written in 1552, the Badianus Manuscript lists a multitude of ailments that cocoa remedies can treat, including angina, fatigue, dysentery, gout, hemorrhoids and even dental problems.
The Aztecs used cacao to mask the unpleasant flavors of other medicinal ingredients used to make various potions to treat fever, blood in the urine, rashes, fever, and convulsions.
Mayan dignitaries introduced chocolate to Spain in 1552. Soon after it was imported as a food, it gained a reputation as a medicine.
In the late 1500s and 1600s, Western physicians experimented with chocolate as a treatment for many of the same illnesses for which it had been used in the Americas.
These include chest pain, fever, stomach problems, kidney problems and fatigue.
Some researchers in the 1700s noted the risk of weight gain in chocolate eaters, citing the potential for convalescing patients, such as when it was incorporated into smallpox treatments.
In 1796, a scientist claimed that chocolate could delay the growth of white hair. In 1864, Auguste Debay described a chocolate decoction used to treat syphilis.
Chocolate was also cited as part of a treatment regimen for a measles outbreak in Mexico in the 19th century.
Since it has been used to treat many diseases in the past, the question is: did it actually work?
Contemporary researchers say that this is probably more a matter of chance than anything else.
In many cases, chocolate preparations were heated or even boiled before drinking. By simply heating the liquid, drinkers could unknowingly kill microbial pathogens.
As for the nutritional content of cocoa itself, studies have suggested that the flavonoid compounds in unprocessed dark chocolate may reduce the risk of clogged arteries and increase blood flow.
Unfortunately, since the mid-1800s, chocolatiers have been removing dark chocolate’s acidity – and its flavonoids – in a process called Dutching to improve its flavor.
They also began adding cocoa butter, dairy and sugar to make the chocolate bars we know and love today.
Despite this, a 2006 study found that eating a little chocolate could have a similar effect to taking aspirin.
But that doesn’t mean you should reach for candy bars instead of medication when you’re sick, because the only thing it will probably cure is your cravings.
REFERENCE:
1. https://cocoarunners.com/chocopedia/chocolate-history-of-medicine/
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3708337/
3. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25989318/
4. https://recipes.howstuffworks.com/food-facts/history-of-chocolate4.htm
