The early writers on chocolate generally became lyrical when they wrote of its value as a food. Thus in the Natural History of Chocolate, by R. Brookes (1730), we read that an ounce of chocolate contains as much nourishment as a pound of beef, that a woman and a child, and even a councillor, lived on chocolate alone for a long period, and further: "Before chocolate was known in Europe, good old wine was called the milk of old men; but this title is now applied with greater reason to chocolate, since its use has become so common, that it has been perceived that chocolate is, with respect to them, what milk is to infants."
A more temperate tone is shown in the following, from A Curious Treatise of the Nature and Quality of Chocolate, by Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma, a Spaniard, Physician and Chyrurgion of the city of Ecija, in Andaluzia (printed at the Green Dragon, 1685):
So great is the number of those persons, who at present do drink of Chocolate, that not only in the West Indies, whence this drink has its original and beginning, but also in Spain, Italy, Flanders, &c., it is very much used, and especially in the Court of the King of Spain; where the great ladies drink it in a morning before they rise out of their beds, and lately much used in England, as Diet and Phisick with the Gentry. Yet there are several persons that stand in doubt both of the hurt and of the benefit, which proceeds from the use thereof; some saying, that it obstructs and causes opilations, others and those the most part, that it fattens, several assure us that it fortifies the stomach: some again that it heats and inflames the body. But very many steadfastly affirm, that tho' they shou'd drink it at all hours, and that even in the Dog-days, they find themselves very well after it.
So much for the old valuations; let us now attempt by modern methods to estimate the food value of cacao and its preparations.
Food Value of Cacao Beans.
In estimating the worth of a food, it is usual to compare the fuel values. This peculiar method is adopted because the most important requirement in nutrition is that of giving energy for the work of the body, and a food may be thought of as being burnt up (oxidised) in the human machine in the production of heat and energy. The various food constituents serve in varying degrees as fuel to produce energy, and hence to judge of the food value it is necessary to know the chemical composition. Below we give the average composition of cacao beans and the fuel value calculated from these figures:
AVERAGE COMPOSITION AND FUEL VALUE OF FRESHLY ROASTED CACAO BEANS (NIBS).
| Composition. | Energy-giving power Calories per lb. | |||
| Cacao Butter | 54.0 | = | 2,282 | |
| Protein (total nitrogen 2.3%) | 11.9 | = | 221 | |
| Cacao Starch Other Digestible Carbohydrates, etc. | 6.7 18.7 | } = | 472 | |
| Stimulants { | Theobromine Caffein | 1.0 0.4 | ||
| Mineral Matter | 3.2 | |||
| Crude Fibre | 2.6 | |||
| Moisture | 1.5 | |||
| 100.0 | 2,975 | |||