Growers and Grocers

What’s Really In Your Box Of Chocolates?

It’s that time of year again. Valentine’s Day is coming. Boxes of chocolates everywhere, in every size and color imaginable. Women love Valentine’s Day for the most part, myself included - or at least the thought of it. Especially when you get the box you like the best. Part of my daily work as a healthcare consultant and organic farmer leads me to investigate just about every food that’s out there. Lately, I’ve been thinking about chocolate.

That’s really not uncommon for me; my cupboard is filled with fantastic dark and organic chocolate due to my lifelong addiction to the cocoa bean. Still, investigating chocolate reminds me of younger days when the greeting for Valentine’s Day in jest was often “Happy V.D.” Here comes the witty segue.

Unfortunately, most of the beautifully wrapped boxes I’ve been looking at this year are only beautiful on the outside. Inside, they’re diseased. They’ve caught HFCS and it’s making us all sick. It’s everywhere and spreads very easily. Consider yourself warned and take the necessary precautions.

Many of you who know, my husband, Al Rosas (The Organic Chef), and I know that we just never get off that high fructose corn syrup soap box. http://www.whatnottoeat.net/.  It’s part of the “Big Three” we’ve been telling people to avoid for years now.

This is just part of what High Fructose Corn Syrup does to your body:

Fructose does not stimulate the pancreas to produce insulin. Peter Havel, a nutrition researcher at UC Davis who studies the metabolic effects of fructose, has also shown that fructose fails to increase the production of leptin, a hormone produced by the body’s fat cells. Both insulin and leptin act as signals to the brain to turn down the appetite and control body weight. Havel’s research also shows that fructose does not appear to suppress the production of ghrelin, a hormone that increases hunger and appetite. “Because fructose in isolation doesn’t activate the hormones that regulate body weight as do other types of carbohydrate composed of glucose, consuming a diet high in fructose could lead to taking in more calories and, over time, to weight gain,” he states.

HFCS is sweeter than sugar and is used by the body in a completely different way than sugar. HFCS goes directly to the liver, which releases enzymes that instruct the body to store fat . This may elevate triglyceride (fat in blood) and cholesterol levels; it slows fat burning and causes people to gain weight. Dietary experts are finally warning the public that HFCS is at least one big cause of the epidemic increase in obesity in America and related increase in diabetes.

Diabetes is about sugar. It is about the regulation of sugar in our bodies known as blood sugar or blood glucose. All of the cells in our body require a constant source of glucose in order to live. If the cells are unable to get adequate amounts of glucose they can literally starve, causing tissues and organs to break down. This is what diabetes is about. Too many fat cells crowd out the other cells in the body and insulin can’t get to where it needs to go. According to Ralph T. Golan, 90 percent of Type 2 diabetes sufferers are obese, a result directly linked to poor dietary choices. Does this mean you can eat all the regular sugar you want? Of course not. But the super sugars are the worst you can eat when you do eat sweets.

But there is some good news. In my investigations this year, I’ve discovered that there are actually boxes of beautiful organic chocolates available mainstream. I received mine, a traditional Whitman’s Sampler, organic and HFCS free from my favorite chef. It was exactly as I remembered it.