Is Your New Year's Resolution to Lose Weight in 2006? My Experiences!

Having just talked about the problem of Christmas Chocolates in my last blog, many of you would probably be agreeing and wanting to lose weight now the New Year 2006 has started.

Today has been my fifth time at the gym. The first one being in Chantilly, Virginia at the Olympus where I am a member. The others at Clapham Junction, Fitness First where I am also a member.

I was on the Elliptical Cross Training machine for a full hour and whilst sweating, in agony and my legs straining; 'in my face' were several television screens with New Year's Resolution and Dieting programmes. Men and women of fuller figures and celebrities parading themselves on the reality television for a Challenge of Losing Weight which I thought was rather sad. Sad because it brought an unhappy memory.

Between year 2000 and 2001, I was at my biggest - around 200lbs. I lost my self-confidence and self-esteem, felt constantly tired and became withdrawn. The reason: I became immobile for 4 months due to a car accident I was involved in (as a passenger) and injured two of my lower back vertebrae. I got depressed due to pain and uncertainty about mobility that I started eating more than I should. Saying that, I always love my food and in large helpings which didn't help - mind you, it was a form of comfort, but that's no excuse.

The turning point came during a trip to Barbados the beginning of 2001. The friends I was with were stripped down either sunning themselves or swimming in the sea whilst I was fully clothed too embarrased to take my shirt off for a swim. Luckily, a friend encouraged me to go to the gym and showed me how to use the facilities targetting my abdominal muscles to help support my back (which had been injured in the accident). Since then, I started doing exercises at home and progressed to becoming a member at my local gym.

Exercise and make it a Habit - I tell you it's not easy.

The path to being healthy and fit is a difficult one. If you are a Pessimist, you would say it's going to be difficult, hard and unachievable. An Optimist would consider it a routine, just like brushing your teeth or washing your face - you have to make it into a habit. You also have to tie it in with a sensible balanced diet. My weight 'yoyoed' initially as making a habit out of exercise was not the easiest task. It was difficult! I started going for brisk walks after my stretches at home as I could not run due to my injured back and dodgy knee. I started on a 20 minute walks which progressed to 30 and sometimes 40 when I was feeling good. This was a preparation to me registering at my local gym - just so I didn't feel very fat when I started. Since then, I never look back.

I started on the treadmill for a 10 minute jog then would normally run for 5 minutes but it aggravated my knee therefore causing me to stop after a few tries. I then tried the Life Fitness Cross-Trainer and stuck with it since and combined it with abdominal exercises which reduced my waistline from 38inch to 31 inch presently. The trick was combining my exercise with the Liver Cleansing Diet which was introduced to me by a friend who was completely lean - not a trace of fat in his body that I started seeing big results.

I will stop here for now but will tell you about the exercise I am doing and the details of the diet I am using which is easy and most practical.

Take care for now and God bless,

Alan Aldana

Chocolate

The reason for this blog is due to the recent publicity about weight gain after the holiday bingeing! I thought, I need to draw attention to the fact that in moderation, we can all eat whatever we want in conjuction with an active lifestyle by means of a brisk walk of 20-30 minutes a day and by perhaps becoming a member at your local gym.

If you follow this approach you can still enjoy your favourite forms of food but the key is nothing to excess.

One of my favourite forms of 'feel good' nourishment used to be a bar (or two or three - or more!) a day of chocolate.

I used to eat a box of Belgian Leonidas Chocolates, Cadbury's Fruit & Nut Bars and (my favourite!) Crunchy Bars as these chocolate bars made me feel good. I believe the amount I consumed was excessive and together with a lack of exercise contributed to my gain in weight. One day, I read an article somewhere that dark chocolate is good for your heart and since then I have largely changed from milk chocolate to dark chocolate. It is a win-win situation as I have developed a taste for dark chocolate and get a high from it! I never understood why I got this 'high' feeling every time I consume dark chocolate until I read this reference from an article in Reference.com which I will be incorporating in this particular blog. Here goes the definition of chocolate, the different kinds of chocolate, its effects and history.

Chocolate is a common ingredient in many kinds of sweets—one of the most popular in the world.

Chocolate is made from the fermented, roasted and ground beans of the tropical cacao tree Theobroma cacao. The beans come from a cacao pod. The resulting product is known as "chocolate", an intensely flavoured bitter food; this is the definition of chocolate used in many dictionaries. This product is defined as cocoa in many countries. In the American chocolate industry, cocoa is defined as the solids of the cacao bean, cocoa butter is defined as the fat component, and chocolate is the combination of the solids and the fat. This is usually sweetened with sugar and other ingredients and made into chocolate bars (the substance of which is also and commonly referred to as chocolate), or beverages (called cocoa or hot chocolate).

There are three types of cacao beans used in chocolates. The most prized, rare, and expensive is the

Criollo - this is a highly-prized cacao, noted for the richness, intensity and subtlety of its flavours. The pod is soft-skinned, with a light colour. Criollo makes up only about 5% of the world cacao crop), the bean of the Maya (of Southern Mexico and Northern Central America).

Forastero beans produce chocolate that is less intense in flavour, but the trees are hardier and produce more beans. The pod is thick-skinned, and the beans have a pungent aroma. Forastero makes up about 90% of the world crop). Forastero trees are significantly hardier than Criollo trees, resulting in cheaper cacao beans.

Trinitario, is a cross between Criollo and Forastero, named after the island of Trinidad where it was developed. It combines some of the characteristics of the other varieties, being hardier than the Criollo and with more intense flavour than Forastero. Trinitario is now grown in practically all cacao-producing areas.

Chocolate, when not produced in "bars" or other geometric shapes, is often produced in the form of small molded forms (usually of animals or people), for example as rabbit- or egg-shaped chocolates, near Easter, and other shapes for Christmas, Saint Nicholas and Valentine's Day. Chocolate "kisses" or roses are other popular shapes.

Additionally, chocolate is often the main ingredient, or a major ingredient, in ice cream, cookies, cake, pie, and other desserts. The word chocolate is of Nahuatl origin (Aztec writing system) .

Different kinds of chocolate

Classification

Chocolate is an extremely popular ingredient, and is available in many types. Different forms and flavours of chocolate are produced by varying the amount of the ingredients. Other flavours can be obtained by varying the time and temperture when roasting the beans.

▪ Unsweetened chocolate: is pure chocolate liquor, also known as bitter or baking chocolate. It's unadulterated chocolate: ground roasted chocolate beans with no other added ingredients imparts a strong, deep chocolate flavour in all the sweets you add it to. However, with the addition of sugar, it's used as the base for American style layer cakes, brownies, confections, and cookies.

▪ Dark chocolate: chocolate without milk as an additive, sometimes called plain chocolate. The US Government calls this Sweet Chocolate, and requires a 15% concentration of chocolate liquor. European rules specify a minimum of 35% cocoa solids.

▪ Couverture: is a term used for cocoa butter rich chocolates of the highest quality. Popular brands of couverture used by professional pastry chefs and often sold in gourmet and specialty food stores include: Valrhona, Lindt, Cacao Barry and Esprit des Alpes. These chocolates contain a high percentage of chocolate liquor (sometimes more than 70 percent) as well as cocoa butter, at least 32-39%, are very fluid when melted and have an excellent flavor. In fact, chocolate of this quality is often compared to tasting fine wine because subtleties in taste are often apparent, especially when you taste a variety of semisweet and bittersweet couvertures with different percentages of sugar and chocolate liquor.

▪ Milk chocolate: chocolate with milk powder or condensed milk added. The US Government requires a 10% concentration of chocolate liquor. European rules specify a minimum of 25% cocoa solids.

▪ Semi-sweet chocolate: used for cooking purposes; a dark chocolate with lower sugar content.

▪ Bittersweet chocolate: is chocolate liquor (or unsweetened chocolate) to which sugar, more cocoa butter, lecithin, and vanilla has been added. It has less sugar and more liquor than semisweet chocolate but the two are interchangeable in baking. The best quality bittersweet and semisweet chocolate is produced as couverture and many brands now print the percentage of chocolate liquor it contains on the package. The rule is the higher the percentage of liquor the more bittersweet the chocolate will be. Generally Europeans favor bittersweet chocolate and Americans opt for semisweet chocolate which has more sugar than bittersweet chocolate.

▪ White chocolate: a confection based on cocoa butter without the cocoa solids.

▪ Cocoa powder: there are two types of unsweetened baking cocoa available: natural cocoa (like the sort produced by Hershey's and Nestle) and Dutch-process cocoa (such as the Hershey's European Style Cocoa and the Droste brand). Both are made by pulverizing, partially defatted chocolate liquor (unsweetened chocolate) removing nearly all their cocoa butter. Natural cocoa is light in color and somewhat acidic with a strong chocolate flavor. In baking use natural cocoa in recipes which call for baking soda (because it's an alkali). Combining the two creates a leavening action that allows the batter to rise during baking. Dutch-process cocoa has been processed with alkali to neutralize its natural acidity so it's darker often with a reddish cast. Dutch cocoa is slightly milder in taste and deeper in color than natural cocoa. Use Dutch cocoa in recipes that call for baking powder as its leavener (raising agent).

Flavours such as mint, orange, or strawberry are sometimes added to chocolate. A chocolate bar is a bar of chocolate, frequently containing added ingredients such as peanuts, nuts, caramel, or even crisped rice. Other chocolates contain alcoholic liqueurs. It is a common snack all over the world.

The definition of chocolate

Strictly speaking, chocolate is any product 100% based on cocoa solid and/or cocoa fat. Because it is used in a vast number of by-products, any change in the cost of making it has a huge impact on the industry. Adding ingredients is an aspect of the taste. On the other hand, reducing cocoa solid content, or substituting cocoa fat with a non-cocoa one, reduces the cost of making it. There has been disagreement in the EU about the chocolate definition.

▪ Some want to see the definition allowing for any cocoa solid content and any kind of fat in chocolate. This would allow a merely coloured and flavoured margarine to be sold as being chocolate. In some countries this happens, and a 50% to 60% cocoa solid dark-chocolate, with no additive, for domestic use, is hard to find and expensive.
▪ Others want to stick to something closer to the strict definition above.

The history of chocolate

The Aztecs associated chocolate with Xochiquetzal, the goddess of fertility. In the New World, chocolate was consumed in a drink called xocoatl, often seasoned with vanilla, chilli pepper, achiote (which we know today as annatto) and pimento. Xocoatl was believed to fight fatigue, a belief that is probably attributable to the theobromine content. Chocolate was an important luxury good throughout Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and cocoa beans were often used as currency. Other chocolate drinks combined it with such edibles as maize gruel and honey.

The xocoatl was said to be an acquired taste. Jose de Acosta, a Spanish Jesuit missionary who lived in Peru and then Mexico in the later 16th century, wrote:

Loathsome to such as are not acquainted with it, having a scum or froth that is very unpleasant to taste. Yet it is a drink very much esteemed among the Indians, where with they feast noble men who pass through their country. The Spaniards, both men and women, that are accustomed to the country, are very greedy of this Chocolaté. They say they make diverse sorts of it, some hot, some cold, and some temperate, and put therein much of that "chili"; yea, they make paste thereof, the which they say is good for the stomach and against the catarrh.

Christopher Columbus brought some cocoa beans to show Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, but it remained for Hernando de Soto to introduce it to Europe more broadly.

The first recorded shipment of chocolate to the Old World for commercial purposes was in a shipment from Veracruz to Seville in 1585. It was still served as a beverage, but the Europeans added sugar to counteract the natural bitterness, and removed the chili pepper. By the 17th century it was a luxury item among the European nobility.

In 1828, Dutchman Conrad J. van Houten patented a method for extracting the fat from cocoa beans and making powdered cocoa and cocoa butter. Van Houten also developed the so-called Dutch process of treating chocolate with alkali to remove the bitter taste. This made it possible to form the modern chocolate bar. It is believed that the Englishman, Joseph Fry made the first chocolate for eating in 1847, followed shortly after by the Cadbury brothers.

Daniel Peter, a Swiss candle-maker, joined his father-in-law's chocolate business. In 1867 he began experimenting with milk as an ingredient. He brought his new product, milk chocolate, to market in 1875. He was assisted in removing the water content from the milk to prevent mildewing by a neighbor, a baby food manufacturer named Henri Nestlé. Rudolph Lindt invented the process called conching, which involves heating and grinding the chocolate solids to a very fine grain ensuring the liquid is evenly blended.

Why chocolate tastes so good

Part of the enjoyability of the chocolate eating experience is ascribed to the fact that its melting point is slightly below human body temperature and so it melts in the mouth. Chocolate also releases serotonin in the brain which produces feelings of pleasure in a similar way to sunlight. Chocolate can also explain why the majority of the world's populus likes spicy foods: the way most people's bodies handle spicy foods is by releasing endorphins.

Physiological effects of chocolate

Lethal toxicity for domesticated animals

In sufficient amounts, the theobromine found in chocolate is toxic to animals such as horses, dogs, parrots, cats (kittens especially), and other birds and small animals because they are unable to metabolize the chemical effectively.

Health benefits for humans

Recent studies have shown that cocoa or dark chocolate has potent health benefits for people. Dark chocolate is full of the flavonoids epicatechin and gallic acid, which are antioxidants that help protect blood vessels, cardiac health, and prevent cancer. It also has been effectively demonstrated to counteract mild hypertension. In fact, dark chocolate has more flavonoids than any other antioxidant-rich food such as red wine, green and black tea, and blueberries. In fact there has even been a fad diet named "Chocolate diet" that emphasises eating chocolate & cocoa powder in capsules. However, consuming milk chocolate or white chocolate, or drinking milk with dark chocolate appears to largely negate the health benefits. Chocolate is also a calorie-rich food, with a high content of saturated fat, so daily intake of chocolate also requires reducing caloric intake of other foods.

Chocolate as a drug

Current research indicates that chocolate is a weak stimulant due to to its content of theobromine and caffeine.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15549276

However, chocolate contains too little of these compounds for a reasonable serving to create effects in humans that are on par with a coffee buzz. In the apt words of the pharmacologist Ryan J. Huxtable, "... is more than a food but less than a drug". However, chocolate is a very potent stimulant for dogs and horses; its use is therefore banned in horse-racing. Some chocolate products contain added synthetic caffeine.

Acne

Although there is apparently no scientific basis for chocolate causing acne, many people find that the consumption of chocolate can result in an outbreak of acne even years after acne has ceased post-puberty.

How chocolate is made

Harvesting

Firstly, the cacao pods, containing cacao beans, are harvested. The pods are crushed and left to ferment for about six days, after which the beans are split from the pods and dried. Fine chocolate can be produced by drying the beans for about 7 days in the sun. Accelerated or artificial drying is quicker but produces inferior quality chocolate, such as that used in most mass produced products.

The beans are then roasted, graded and ground. Cocoa butter is removed from the resulting chocolate liquor either by being pressed or by the Broma process. The residue is what is known as cocoa powder.

Blending

Chocolate liquor is blended with the butter in varying quantities to make different types of chocolate or couverture. The basic blends of ingredients, in order of highest quantity first, are as follows:

Plain dark chocolate: cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, sugar, and vanilla.

Milk chocolate: sugar, milk or milk powder, cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, and vanilla.

White chocolate: sugar, milk or milk powder, cocoa butter, and vanilla.

Usually, an emulsifying agent such as soya lecithin is added, though a few manufacturers prefer to exclude this ingredient for purity reasons and to remain GMO-free (soya is a heavily genetically modified crop), sometimes at the cost of a perfectly smooth texture.

Different manufacturers develop their own 'signature' blends based on the above formulas but varying proportions of the different constituents used.

The finest plain dark chocolate couvertures contain at least 70% cocoa (solids + butter), whereas milk chocolate usually contains up to 50%. High quality white chocolate couvertures contain only about 33% cocoa. Inferior and mass produced chocolate contains much less cocoa (as low as 7% in many cases) and fats other than cocoa butter. Some chocolate-makers opine that these "brand name" milk chocolate products can not be classed as couverture or even as chocolate, because of the low or virtually non-existent cocoa content.

Conching

The penultimate process is called conching. A conche is a container filled with metal beads, which act as grinders. The refined and blended chocolate mass is kept liquid by frictional heat. The conching process produces cocoa and sugar particles smaller than the tongue can detect, hence the smooth feel in the mouth. The length of the conching process determines the final smoothness and quality of chocolate. High quality chocolate is conched for about 72 hrs, lesser grades about 4-6 hrs. After the process is complete, the chocolate mass is stored in tanks heated to approximately 45-50° C until final processing.

Tempering

The final process is called tempering. Since cocoa butter exhibits a polymorphous or unstable crystal formation, the mass must be cooled very carefully to encourage the crystals to stabilise in the right order to produce the desired properties of snappy bite, tender melt and a good gloss in the finished product. This is achieved by the tempering process. Firstly, the mass is cooled in stages from about 45°C to about 27°C and rewarmed to about 37°C followed by cooling down to its solid state.

The chocolate is then ready for sale as couverture (used for coating chocolates, biscuits and other coated products) or as the finished product, such as solid chocolate bars.

Storing

Chocolate is very sensitive to temperature and humidity. Ideal storage temperatures are between 15 to 17 celsius (59 to 63 Fahrenheit), with a relative humidity of less than 50%. Chocolate should be stored away from other foods as chocolates act as sponges to different aromas. Ideally, chocolates are packed or wrapped and then placed in proper storage areas with the correct humidity and temperatures.

That's all for now! Hope this has got you thinking about chocolate. Now you know what to get me for my birthday next month.... Something in the Leonidas range would be nice ;-).

Take care and God bless till my next blogging.

Alan Aldana

Pearl, the Mother of Gems!

London has been dull and grey for the last two days and the forecast is still not good. I have therefore decided to make use of my interesting collection of tidbits and reference from my travels in Dubai and share them with you. Now that the festive season is officially over, I went to the gym yesterday, for the first time in 2006, at Fitness First, where I am a member. I will also be talking about health and fitness on my future blog to help me achieve my New Year's resolution to stay lean and fit. I will also be sharing with you the diet I have been doing for the last 2 years which helped stop my weight from 'yoyo-ing' - so watch this space!

The topic today is Pearls. I thought this is the next best thing to blog about after Diamonds. By definition, a pearl is a smooth lustrous round structure inside the shell of a clam or oyster; much valued as a jewel and it has a shade of white the color of bleached bones.

Contrary to popular beliefs, pearls rarely result from the intrusion of a single grain of sand into an oyster shell, instead forming when an irritant, such as a wayward food particle becomes trapped and is coated with layers of aragonite (a mineral form of crystalline calcium carbonate; dimorphic with calcite) and conchiolin, thus giving birth to the actual gem. Naturally occurring pearls only appear in around one in every 10,000 shells and it was the advent of the cultured pearl industry in the early 20th century that developed techniques to drastically improve the odds, launching pearls onto the mass market.

Pearl fishing was a major industry crossing the Indian Ocean to the Persian Gulf with pearl divers seasonally working the fertile sea bed. These divers frequently risk their lives in pursuit of the treasures hidden in the deep, diving for over two minutes with little more than a nose clip and heavy stone weight to pull them more than 70 feet down to the ocean floor.

In the Gulf region, the pearl fishing industry was a mainstay of the economy through to the late 1940s when the blossoming cultured pearl movement led to a collapse in demand for the natural version. Around 80,000 men earned their living from pearling and some of the best natural pearls came from these waters.

Huge fleets of pearling vessels set out to the oyster banks each season with the crew spending months away from home and existing on subsistence rations. The Trucial States (precursor to the United Arab Emirates) had some 1,200 pearling dhows, of which 335 where from Dubai. (DHOW - A long, flat sailing vessel that is lateen-rigged and found in the Indian Ocean along the east coast of Africa, the Arabian peninsula, Pakistan, and India).

The captain kept any pearls found which were often few and far between, negotiated their final price with divers receiving a mere fraction of the profit. A reverential experience, the opening of an oyster shell was undertaken in silence and any treasures gently wrapped in red cloth to later show them off to their best advantage.

Pearl as a Status Symbol

As ancient trade routes snaked their way across the world, pearls became important symbols of wealth, status and taste. As far back as 6,000 years ago, archaeological finds showed evidence that in the Persian Gulf region, people were sometimes buried with a peirced pearl resting in their right hand. The oldest known Gulf pearl dating back some 7,000 years, was found in Kuwait and was probably part of a necklace.

Ancient Middle Eastern cultures are believed to be the first to value pearls and pearl shells (mother of pearl). In Persia, the pearls were said to be worth their weight in gold and to convince Rome that Egypt possessed a heritage and wealth that put it above conquest, Cleopatra wagered Mark Antony that she could give the most expensive dinner in history. As he reclined, Cleopatra sat with an empty plate before her and a goblet of wine. Crushing a large pearl earring, she dissolved it in the liquid and drank it. The astonished Antony declined to consume his dinner - the matching pearl - and Cleopatra claimed victory.

According to Islamic thought, pearls represent perfection and completeness. In the west, the tradition of gifts of pearl jewellery for new brides and the handing down of heirlooms from mother to daughter is associated with purity, perfection, innocence and longevity.

As far back as 1870, a US newspaper reported that pearls were 'exquisitely beautiful and constitute an appropriate and elegant present to a young bride'.

With the arrival of cultured pearls on the international market in the first half of the 20th century, these formerly elitist gems became more readily available. Designers such as Coco Chanel used them to full effect. By the 1950, cultured pearls were essential accessories for well-dressed women in the United States and Europe.

In the 1950's, at their fashionable height, a pearl necklace was sought by newly married women, budding debutantes, mothers and grandmothers; but the prestige of owning a string of these cool gems is timeless.

Not just the city of gold, Dubai's jewellers offers pearls in every shape, colour and style, from the classic single strand a la Princess Diana, Jackie Onassis to sparkling diamond and pearl sets for very special occasions. Audrey Hepburn glammed up her black dress with a classic choker in Breakfast at Tiffany's, Scarlett Johanssen visually seduced Colin Firth with a single orb in Girl with a Pearl Earring. When in Dubai, haggling for the best price is obligatory and compared to the west, prices are highly competitive.

Pearl Tales

According to historians, Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 BC to obtain among other things, freshwater pearls.

At the height of the Roman Empire, the historian Suetonius wrote that the Roman general Vitellius financed an entire military campaign by selling just one fo his mother's pearl earrings.

Queen Elizabeth I of England is said to have established an artificial pearl industry to satisfy her love of pearls.

In 1917, the jewellers Cartier bought a building in New York with two strands of natural pearls valued at US$1,200,000.

Pearl characteristics - because of the natural process of formation, a pearl isn't as smooth as you would imagine. Uneven layers create surface irregularities and you can distinguish a real pearl from an artificial one by rubbing it gently across your teeth. A real pearl will feel gritty and an artifical one - smooth and slippery.

Pearls come in diffirent colours from cool white and gentle cream to the gold-hued variety loved in the gulf region as well as purple and even black. The colour depends on both the type of mollusc and surrounding environment. Pearls are said to 'glow' and their lustrous rainbow-like colours results from the reflection of light rays off the surface and the iridescent layers.

In olden times, pearls were said to be taken whole or in powdered form. Pearls were believed to cure heart disease, indigestion, insomnia, cataracts, ulcers, headaches, liver problems, nervouse diseases, blood disorders, leprosy and even insanity. They were also linked with the moon, good fortune and weddings, offering protection to those who wore them.

Taking Care of Your Pearls

Always store your pearls separately from other jewellery especially diamonds, to avoid scratching.

Apply perfume or cosmetics before you put on your pearls as the delicate surface is easily damaged.

After wear, wipe your pearls with a damp soft cloth.

Take care for now and I will blog soon,

Alan Aldana