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IN THIS ISSUE
Chocoholic?
It May Be Cultural!
(CNN) -- Some women think they are born chocolate lovers. But new research
says it's more likely they've learned to love chocolate -- especially if they were raised in the United States.
"When you crave something, you go for something that you think is wonderful," says Dr. Debra Zellner,
a psychologist at Shippensburg University in south central Pennsylvania. "And here (in the United States),
chocolate is wonderful."
But that's not the case everywhere. Zellner
compared cravings of American women to cravings of Spanish women and found that their desires ran in divergent
directions.
While both groups craved sweets, Spanish women craved cream puffs while American women overwhelmingly craved chocolate.
"It's a very special food for us because it conveys affection," Zellner says. "It conveys love."
The act of eating chocolate
Zellner's is the first study that shows there may be cultural reasons for certain cravings. And it's a new explanation
for why so many American women feel addicted to chocolate.
Past research has focused on the chemicals in chocolate and whether they duplicate feelings of being in love or
exercising.
"We have no reason to believe that those effects are specific or unique to chocolate," says Marcia Levin
Pelchat of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. "Those effects can occur with any of a variety
of foods."
And as for the infamous study that says chocolate contains compounds similar to those in marijuana -- researchers
point out you'd have to eat 20 pounds of chocolate to experience that type of effect.
So maybe it's simply the sensation of eating chocolate that causes and satisfies the craving.
"It has a has a very complex aroma that is very difficult to duplicate, very pleasant," Pelchat says.
"(And) of course, it's sweet."
Whatever the reason for cravings, a "sweet tooth" isn't all that uncommon -- but location may determine
what indulgences will satisfy it.
Reprinted from CNN's Health Page.
BACK TO TOP
Chocolate and Mushrooms?
Chocolate Addicts Can
Get a Fix From Mushrooms
By Teresa Riordan ABCNEWS.com
Let's say you want to give your chocolate-worshipping love a big gold
box of Godivas on Valentine's Day. But you've noticed lately that his formerly cute little paunch makes him look
like an experiment in male pregnancy. Or that her increasingly curvaceous hips necessitate your giving her a little
push so she can squeeze out the front door in the morning. On one hand you don't want to contribute to the expansion.
On the other, being stingy with the chocolate would lead to an icy night. What to do?
How about giving your beloved an assortment of nummy, chocolaty, nonfat,
low-cal confections made from … chopped dried mushrooms? It may sound unbelievable - disgusting, even. But it may
not be wholly impossible.
The Chocolate Touch
Take a look at U.S. patent 5,709,048, which was recently granted to Barry Holtz. He has a Ph.D in chemistry and
nutritional physiology and works for Biosource Technologies in Vacaville, Calif. Holtz has patented a way to turn
dehydrated mushrooms into a dark-colored material with a chocolaty flavor.
First, the patent notes, you grow the mushrooms (the< common white
button variety will do) in the normal way - on a compost that may include "straw, horse manure, chicken manure,
cottonseed meal and gypsum." Then you just slice them up and put them on a drying rack similar to the ones
used to dry grapes into raisins. While they're drying, you blast them with some carbon dioxide and heat them for
a couple of weeks at a humid 71 and 79 degrees Fahrenheit.
By doing this, Holtz says, "we stimulate enzymes that form volatile
compounds that taste like chocolate." While real chocolate is about half fat, these dehydrated mushrooms have
no fat at all. So where does the flavor come from? From what the Japanese have dubbed umami, essentially a fifth
taste (in addition to the basic four: sweet, sour, salty, bitter).
Indeed, U.S. researchers recently found receptors in the mouth that respond
to glutamates, which mushrooms have in abundance. It's the same "mouth feel" taste that makes MSG so
savory. Indeed, Holtz first set out dehydrating mushrooms in search of an MSG substitute that wouldn't induce Chinese
Restaurant Syndrome.
Product Without a Home
Alas, you won't be seeing any mushroom sweets on the market anytime soon. RJR Nabisco, which backed the idea in
a joint venture, has declined to use dehydrated mushrooms.
"It's too expensive for mundane applications," says Holtz.
"Right now the product is looking for a home." And don't expect to ever see the dehydrated mushroom equivalent
of a Hershey bar at the grocery checkout. More likely would be something like a chocolate-flavored cake made with
a ground-up powder of the stuff.
Will it satisfy hard-core chocoholics? "It's a more subtle flavor,"
acknowledges Holtz. "And chocolate is really a drug," he said. "We can't replicate all its addictive
compounds."
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"We Like Ours With Chocolate Syrup"
Ice cream makers on the fat track to success
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Ice cream makers like quirky Ben & Jerry's and Haagen-Dazs are on the fat track, pushing
out more products heavy with butterfat, swirls and nuts to satisfy richer appetites of richer Americans.
 Instead of plain old flavors
like vanilla or strawberry that cost about $1 a pint less, the rage is for sinful scoops like Chocolate Overload
and Cookie Dough Chip with fat contents so high they will knock your heart out.
"People are indulging these days. They work out and then eat a whole pint of ice cream. When they decide to
go for the fat, they go for it," said Jeremy Kraus, the 23-year-old founder of Philadelphia-based Jeremy's
MicroBatch Ice Creams, one of a handful of new companies cropping up to take advantage of the demand for gourmet
brands.
The trend is good news for the super premium and premium -- better known as gourmet -- ice cream makers, particularly
Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., Haagen-Dazs, a unit of U.K.-based food and beverage giant Diageo Plc, and Dreyer's
Grand Ice Cream Inc., which have the lion's share of the market.
"It's a backlash against the previous trend of stripping dessert of all its goodies," said ice cream
analyst Ann Gillin Lefever of Sanford C. Bernstein. "The indulgence flavors are really where the growth is
at."
Last year the ice cream makers saw their revenues melt by about 5 percent as butterfat prices soared higher amid
weird weather patterns that caused a dwindling of supplies, analysts said.
Over the past three years, Americans have been steadily gobbling up more and more gallons of gourmet ice cream.
Last year, super premium and premium volumes grew an estimated 10.3 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively, in the
$4 billion ice cream market.
The gourmet varieties now demand 41 percent of market share, an increase from 38.6 percent in 1997 and 28.5 percent
in 1996, according to data from research group ACNielson.
You can blame the extra inches to the national waistline on the strong economy: Today's high fat gourmet ice cream
is generally considered a
discretionary income item.
The average Joe can not only afford to pay the extra buck for a pint of ice cream that has less air than regular
brands and a fat content of between about 14 percent to 22 percent, but he can also work off the calories in a
gym.
"When creating flavors, we typically look for innovative dessert concepts that have not yet been translated
into ice cream," said Kraus.
Since its start three years ago, Jeremy's Microbatch has evolved from a regional product found in 10 stores to
a near nationwide phenomenon.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
BACK TO TOP
Two Recipes-
One That's Lean, One That's Not!
Title : Zucchini Chocolate Cake
Author: C. Heath <dtcheat@gatekeeper.ddp.state.me.us>
Date : August 1995
_____________________________________
1/2 Cup Margarine (or Butter)
1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil
1 3/4 Cups Sugar
2 Eggs
1 Teasp Vanilla
1/2 Cup Sour Milk (recipe follows)
2 1/2 Cups Flour
4 Tblsp Cocoa
1/2 Teasp Baking Powder
1 Teasp Baking Soda
1/2 Teasp Cinnamon
1/2 Teasp Ground Cloves
2 Cups Ground Peeled Zucchini
1/3 Cups Chocolate Chips
Cream margarine, oil, and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla, and sour milk. Mix
well. Add all dry ingredients. Mix well, then add zucchini. Spoon into
greased and floured 9x12x2 inch pan. Sprinkle with chocolate chips.
Bake at 325 degrees (farenheit) for 40-45 minutes.
TO MAKE SOUR MILK
1 Teasp Vinegar or Lemon Juice
1/2 Cup Milk
Add together and let stand for 5 minutes.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Title : Verla's Turtle Cake
Author: David Monteith <dmonteit@moscow.com>
Date : April 1995
______________________________
1 Package German Chocolate Cake Mix
Ingredients called for on cake mix box
14oz Package Caramels
5 oz can Evaporated Milk
3/4 cup Margarine
1 cup Pecans (chopped )
1 cup Chocolate Chips
Preheat Oven to 3500
Mix cake as per box directions.
Grease a 9x13 pan.
Bake a little less than half of the batter for 15 minutes.
Melt the caramels, margarine and milk in the microwave (about 10
minutes) stirring a couple of times.
Pour caramel mixture over cake, sprinkle with nuts and chocolate
chips. Pour the rest of the cake mix over the top.
Bake 20-35 minutes more, test for doneness.
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