I have fond memories of the Cadbury chocolate factory in Dunedin, NZ. They offered free tours of the factory which I and my fellow starving student friends would attend – with just one thing on our mind – the free samples! In the early 80’s they were particularly generous and we would come away laden with enough chocolate to keep us munching for at least a couple of days.

But my rosy memories have been ruined this week. Cadbury’s are replacing some of the cocoa butter with palm oil to cut costs. All the media attention seems to be on palm oil’s effect on the environment but I am disappointed for a different reason: yet another food is losing its authenticity. Oh, I know palm oil gives the chocolate a smooth mouth-feel but when I eat chocolate, I want to eat real chocolate made from cocoa butter, not vegetable oil.

We do this with so many foods – water them down, bulk them out, add some flavouring to make them taste like the original food – all to make them cheaper so we can stuff more in our mouths. Then we feed it to our kids and they grow up enjoying these less than natural flavours. When they become adults why would they want to pay more for real juice, real bread, real chocolate?

No wonder we have a serious problem with obesity. We’re doing the exact opposite of the French secret to staying slim. In true French style, I can satisfy my chocolate craving with a couple of squares of dark, flavonoid rich, real chocolate. But with the sweeter, cheaper stuff it’s easy to gobble up half a block before the guilt light flashes on. And when you read about the health aspects of chocolate, they are talking about real chocolate made with cocoa butter.

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Related:

KFC dumps palm oil

Cadbury leaves a bitter taste

Palm oil blend to replace cocoa butter?

“Chocolate is actually quite good for you,” my ten-year-old niece informed me yesterday. “It’s got iron and calcium in it.” “Not much,” I replied, bursting her hopeful bubble. What it does have is stacks of kilojoules (calories) which is why we’re meant to keep it for occasional treats… unless you plan to row across the Atlantic Ocean.

My cousin, Rob Hamill, and his rowing mate, Phil Stubbs, ate around 350 Cadbury chocolate bars during their world record breaking 41 days rowing from the Canary Islands, Spain to Antigua. “We could have eaten 12 (50g blocks) a day but we had to ration them,” he told me. Rowing two hours on, two hours off, they needed all the energy they could get. Chocolate, with 30% fat and 60% sugar was ideal – along with cereal and milk powder, macaroni cheese, fruit paste energy bars and heaps of fluid replacement drinks.

Never one to sit still for too long, Rob has taken on many challenges since the Atlantic race. But perhaps his greatest challenge is the current one – meeting and testifying at the trial of the man who tortured and executed his brother during the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia. Chocolate won’t give him the strength he needs to meet this challenge – he needs something more than food. Our thoughts and prayers are with you, Rob.

Oh – and if you want to know the calcium and iron content of chocolate… To get as much calcium as in a glass of milk you need to eat five big blocks (about 1kg) of dark chocolate or a 150g block of milk chocolate. And our body doesn’t absorb calcium so well from chocolate as from milk. With iron, dark chocolate actually has quite a bit – 2.3mg iron per 100g. That’s pretty close to lean beef at 3mg per 100 grams. But there are two big differences: how much is absorbed and how many kilojoules each has. Iron in meat is far more easily absorbed than iron in chocolate, and 100 grams of chocolate has 2230kJ (530cal) compared to 770kJ (180cal) in 100 grams of lean beef.

For most of us who will never row across the Atlantic, it’s best to eat small amounts of chocolate for pleasure, not nutrition!

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Read about the making of  “Brother Number One” – a documentary about my cousin Rob’s journey to Cambodia to confront what happened to his brother at the time of Pol Pot.

Follow up: 18/8/2009 -  Rob at S-21 commander Duch’s UN trial in Cambodia.

Finally got ’round to photo’ing my hummus. For my recipe, click here …

It took me ages to make my own hummus but now there’s no going back! The commercial brands I used to love now taste salty and sloppy. Hummus is really healthy and really easy – so long as you have a food processor. Even blokes will eat it with crackers or instead of butter on bread. I love it with tuna and tomato in a grainy bread roll – yum!!!

This recipe is adapted from my friend Sarah who is a food stylist and cook extraordinaire.  We used to do cooking demos together (she did the cooking, I did the nutrition). At one of our demos to around 150 women we made this recipe and everyone loved it.

All you have to do is put these ingredients into a food processor – and blend! Drizzle in the oil last.

1 x 400g can chick peas

A fantastic food for fibre, folate, iron and protein.

2 tablespoons tahini

Tahini is ground up sesame seeds. It tastes awful on its own but tastes great in hummus. It provides lots of healthy unsaturated and essential fats. ‘Essential fats’ are essential for our body and the only way to get them is to eat them! Keep tahini in the fridge so all that healthy fat doesn’t go rancid.

4-5 cloves roasted garlic

I know this sounds like hard work but it’s not. Put a whole garlic head on a tray, drizzle with olive oil and bake for 10-15 minutes at 180C (350F). I often do it when I’m cooking something else. If you’re not making hummus immediately, you can store the roasted garlic in the fridge for a couple of days.

Juice of 1 lemon

I like plenty of lemon juice

3-4 tablespoons chopped parsley, basil or coriander

If you have herbs growing in your garden use more than this – I do!

Salt and pepper to taste

You shouldn’t need much. If you live in New Zealand use iodised salt – we need the iodine. Commercial foods usually use non-iodised salt so there’s another plus for making your own.

3-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

The oil makes the hummus more creamy. I actually like it with less oil and more texture. I always use a really good quality (expensive) olive oil for foods that don’t need cooking. It really makes a difference to the flavour and nutritional value.

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Final photo of it, click here …