The Benefits of Dark Chocolate for Valentine’s Day (Recipe Included!)
For centuries before becoming the sweet treat we know today, chocolate, the product of fermented cacao beans, was used as medicine. Early Aztec cultures concocted remedies using cocoa from the “chocolate tree” to ease intestinal complaints and upset stomach, control diarrhea, reduce fevers, and boost strength before military conquests. Later eras linked chocolate to other properties, such as a cure for “chocolatomania” cravings in the mid-1900s, which were believed to occur in young women.