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Learning to Choose Healthy Foods

Today's hectic and demanding lifestyle as well as the emergence of convenient stores is among the major reasons why people skip their healthy meals. After learning how to depend on fast food stores and convenience stores, it is easier for people to just grab a food that contains less nutrition compared to those foods that matter.

With all these drastic changes in the habit of eating, food preparation and food options, people have become more prone to various diseases because their bodies fail to absorb the nutrients it needs. Contrary to common conception, healthy foods need not to be expensive, rare or hard to prepare.


In fact, most of these recommended foods for healthy living is cheaper, abundant, and easier to prepare compared to those that can be bought in the nearest convenient store.

Why Choose Healthy Foods?

Most food and nutrition experts say that healthy eating is not about what people cannot eat, it is about what people could eat in order to get the optimum nutrition that their bodies need.

If you are one of those who are on their way of learning to eat healthy foods, the best valuable thing that you can do when buying inside the grocery store or super market is to pick those that are fresh, unprocessed and whole. This is very ideal especially if you plan to buy fruit and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, and sprouts.

Why Choose Healthy Foods?

Considered as live foods, being fresh ensures that the food still contain the greatest amount of vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that provides the body with optimum nutrition.

Make sure that you eat fruits that are fresh, dried without belerang dioxide or frozen without preservatives and avoid eating fruits that are canned and in heavy syrup because these have preservatives, additives, and sweeteners. Also, eat veggies that are fresh or raw, lightly steamed, baked and dried without belerang and avoid eating veggies that are frozen with preservatives, additives, sweeteners.

Always opt for fresh sprouts and avoid veggies that are fried or overcooked. When it comes to grains, opt for whole grain products that are unprocessed, nonirradiated, non genetically modified, sugar free, no chemical additives, no preservatives and other whole grain & sprouted grain products like bread, muffins, tortillas, cereals, and pasta, crackers.

choose carefully

Avoid products with white flour, unbleached flour, enriched flour, sweeteners, chemical additives, refined and processed grains, quick oats, instant oatmeal, and instant cereals.

When it comes to legumes, choose beans, peas, lentils, and chickpeas. Avoid using canned legumes prepared without animal fat, with chemical additives, sweeteners, pork and beans, and soybeans. Nuts and seeds such as almonds, filberts, pine nuts, cashews, raw seeds, sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, raw nut butters, and tahini should be eaten raw.

Avoid eating dry roasted nuts and seeds. Also, make sure that you choose animal foods such as eggs, poultry and other meat that are free range, hormone and antibiotic free as well as grass fed. In fish, opt for those that have the lowest exposure to mercury.

Aside from this, you should always consider eating organic foods over to those commercially-produced ones. Nutritionists say that organic foods are indeed the purest and healthiest foods out there because they are not yet contaminated with pesticides and have higher percentage of nutrition.

Learning to read and check the label of the food item that you are about to buy is one of the best ways to ensure that you will be eating healthy food. Checking if the item is properly labeled - especially these are pre-packaged - is your main defense and protection against possible adverse effects and unwanted ingredients or contents.

Lovely kid drinks a glass of milk

Milk has a wide variety of uses and thus is one of the most basic items found in kitchens worldwide. It is consumed as a beverage, poured on cereals, and used in many different ways in cooking. In response to consumers with different nutritional demands, modern food science has made many different types of fluid milk available.

Although milk can be less inviting to people who are concerned with their weight because of its high fat content, some types of milk contain no fat at all.

Whole milk — Containing 3 1/2 percent milk fat, this type of milk is often simply labeled “milk” or “vitamin D milk” if that particular vitamin has been added. Of all types of milk, whole milk is among the highest in fat and calories. One cup has 150 calories and approximately 8 grams of fat.


Reduced-fat milk — Often referred to as two percent, this type of milk has had some milk fat removed from it. Two percent reflects the amount of fat in the milk by weight. It does not refer to the percentage of calories from fat. One cup of 2 percent milk has 130 calories and 5 grams of fat.

about 100 calories and 2.6 grams of fat in 1 cup.

Nonfat or skim milk — Skim milk, which contains less than 0.5 percent milk fat, is now more often labeled nonfat milk. It contains the same amount of nutrients, such as calcium, as its higher fat counterparts, but it has no fat and just 90 calories.

Buttermilk — Buttermilk was once the residue left from churning butter, but today’s version is made from adding a lactic acid culture to milk. The result is far less rich than the original “natural” buttermilk, but it still retains the thick texture and acidic tang of old. Some manufacturers add flecks of butter for an authentic look or stabilizers to prevent separation. Because of its name, buttermilk may sound high in fat. Yet, in most instances it is not.

Buttermilk derives its fat content from the milk used to make it, and in the United States low-fat or nonfat milk is used most often. Calories and fat in buttermilk depend on what type of milk was used to make it. Check the label for fat content.

Acidophilus milk — Normally killed during pasteurization, the healthy bacteria culture Lactobacillus acidophilus is reintroduced into whole, low-fat, or nonfat milk to create sweet acidophilus milk. In a milk, both acidophilus and bifidobacteria cultures are added.

Acidophilus occurs naturally in the body and is found mainly in the small intestine. Many factors can alter the level of this intestinal bacterium, including diet, alcohol consumption, illness, and medications. Alterations in levels can sometimes lead to poor digestion, diarrhea, and bloating.

Drinking acidophilus milk products may reduce intestinal infection and diarrhea and improve milk digestion and tolerance. Studies are under way to evaluate whether these bacteria can help regulate blood cholesterol levels and prevent cancer.

Calories and fat in acidophilus milk depend on what type of milk was cultured with the acidophilus bacterium. If whole milk was used, for example, acidophilus-treated milk contains the same amount of fat and calories as whole milk.

Lactose-reduced and lactose-free milk — These products are tailored to people who have trouble digesting lactose, a sugar found in milk. An enzyme called lactase is added during the processing of this milk.

The result is that lactose in the milk is reduced by at least 70 percent (lactose-reduced) or up to 99.9 percent (lactose-free). Calories and fat in lactose-reduced and lactose-free milk depend on what type of milk was cultured.

Ultrapasteurized milk (UHT) — This milk has been popular in Europe for many years, but it has only recently appeared in U.S. supermarkets. The “ultra-heat treatment” (UHT) sterilizes milk by quickly heating it, sometimes as high as 300 degrees Fahrenheit, and then quickly cooling it before packaging it in vacuum-packed, aseptic containers.

UHT milk can be stored for 2 to 3 months without refrigeration, until opened. Once opened, UHT milk should be refrigerated and quickly consumed. It can spoil, but unlike other milk, it does not curdle as a warning sign of spoilage.

The ultra-heat process makes the milk taste slightly scalded, but it is thought that the treatment does not substantially affect the nutrient value. The amount of fat and calories in UHT milk depends on the type of milk from which it was made.

Preparation Tips

It is easy to overcook milk when heating it. When milk is heated to a temperature that is too high, its proteins clump together and curds appear in the milk. When heating milk, always use low heat and stir frequently. Using a double boiler when heating milk also helps prevent overheating.

Anyone who has ever had homemade hot cocoa knows that heated milk can develop a “skin” (a thickened surface). An easy way to prevent this is to mix a little cornstarch into the milk before heating it.

Serving Suggestions

Serving Suggestions

Nonfat milk has the least amount of fat and calories but still provides all of milk’s nutrients. Many people prefer its lighter texture and taste to the heaviness of whole milk. Even the staunchest fan of whole milk can easily be converted to using this healthier alternative.

Make the change gradually. Start by mixing equal parts of whole milk with 2 percent milk. Then, in stepwise progression, use just 2 percent, next a combination of 2 percent and 1 percent, then just 1 percent, then a combination of 1 percent and skim milk, and eventually only skim milk. If you dislike skim milk, 1 percent or 2 percent milk is a reasonable option, especially if it keeps you drinking milk.

Buttermilk can be substituted for cream in many recipes: a half cup of buttermilk has 1 gram of fat, but the same serving of light cream has 31 grams.

Whenever possible, lower the amount of fat in a recipe by substituting a lowerfat milk. A cream soup made with low-fat milk is just as rich tasting, especially if you thicken the soup with a bit of flour.

A cup of cocoa made with skim milk provides more nutrients and fewer calories than the average chocolate dessert, and it is just as effective for satisfying a sweet tooth.

Morning coffe

Many people throughout the so-called developed world rely upon their morning coffee to get going for the day.

They crave this liquid brewed from beans to give them morning and afternoon pick-ups and often follow meals with a cup of coffee. But the very coffee they use to give them a pick-up may be killing them.

Bodies need to maintain a constant alkaline blood pH of about 7.4 on the pH scale. Ideally this applies to body fluids as well.


When we consume food or liquids with an acid pH the pancreas works overtime to draw magnesium, calcium and potassium from our food and then bones and organs to counteract the acid to maintain the balanced pH. If it can't do so readily, the body creates fat so that it can store acids for waste disposal at a later time.

Depleting our bodies of these essential nutrients that many do not consume in adequate portions due to poor diet, we cause our bodies to begin pulling stored minerals from tissue and bone to maintain itself.

The body works to maintain vital organs and we begin to experience ailments and disease as the body sacrifices itself to try and protect itself. This is the cause of cancer, diabetes, pain, respiratory, urinary, prostate, intestinal and so many other illnesses. We add to the duduk perkara by looking to drugs for relief when they simply add to the cause of the illness.

Coffee doesn't has any nutritional benefit and instead contains over 200 acids. The perk people feel from coffee is actually the energy produced by the body trying to neutralize these acids. This is not a good thing.

The pancreas expends excessive energy trying to counter the effects and to keep the body at the required pH balance. We think this feeling of our body working overtime makes us more aware and vitalized, but it is slowly killing us.

People often cite caffeine as the reason to drink coffee. Caffeine may have some benefit to the body, but is more commonly used as a non-nutritive stimulant to give the feeling of energy. Remember that caffeine greatly reduces the body's ability to absorb potassium, a very important nutrient to the body. Caffeine definitely works as a stimulant and is included in all manner of diet supplements.

coffe with friends

Those who have used caffeine as a part of a weight loss kegiatan can attest it does not produce lasting results. Combined with other pharmaceutical products in a weight loss stack, it is never recommended that the combination be continued long term, as in the case of Phen-Fen, Ephedra and other products. Again, this is all simply adding to the deficits in our bodies.

Coffee is slowly killing you. Simply changing what you drink can give your body a chance to reverse the negative effects of years of coffee drinking. The negative effects may take years to manifest to noticeable levels, but they can be reversed in a relatively short period. Whether you drink caffeinated or decaf coffee, consider the ultimate effects on you.

Sweeteners

Sweeteners come from various sources. They have been sought throughout history for their pleasing taste and many uses. Just stop and think of what you have eaten today.

This morning you may have sweetened your tea with honey and put maple syrup on your pancakes. At lunch, you may have eaten a snack food made with corn syrup — a form of sugar — and, perhaps, you finished off dinner with a cake made with the most commonly used and best known sweetener of all, granulated sugar.

The science of sweetness, however, goes beyond the source of the foodstuff for the sweetener. At a molecular level, approximately 100 chemicals are sweet. They all are referred to as sugars. Common ones you may have heard of include the following:


Sucrose — Table sugar is the crystallized form of sucrose. Sucrose is referred to as a simple sugar. It is naturally occurring in all plants that depend on sunlight to produce energy. Sugar cane and sugar beets are among the most abundant producers of sucrose in the plant kingdom.

Glucose — A simple sugar that plays many key roles in the body, glucose is a simple sugar found in fruits, honey, cereal, flour, and nuts.

Fructose — The sweetest of all sugars is found in abundance in honey and fruit.

Lactose — Another simple sugar, lactose occurs only in milk. It is often added to other foods during processing to improve taste.

Maltose — The result of a chemical processing that uses starch and malt, maltose has numerous commercial food uses. It is often used in beer, bread, and baby food, among other things.

Pectin — A complex sugar, pectin is found in apples, citrus fruits, and some vegetables. It is a form of fiber.

Nutrition

All sugars are carbohydrates and play a key role in providing the body with energy. The calorie content depends on the type of sweetener used. For example, table sugar has about 16 calories per teaspoon, and honey has about 21 calories per teaspoon.

Generally, sweeteners often are referred to as having “empty calories.” They contain few or no vitamins, minerals, or other nutrients. And, because they are appealing, it can be easy to eat too much. This excess could make it difficult to maintain a healthy weight.

Heavy use of sweeteners also may increase the risk of tooth decay, which is why it is important to brush after eating a sweet food, particularly one that is sticky, such as caramel. For these reasons, it is best to minimize the amount of sweeteners in your diet.

Selection and Storage

These factors depend on the type of sweetener. Check the following sections, which provide more information on common types of sweeteners, for specifics.

Sugar

sugar

Sugar was once considered as valuable as gold because of its scarcity. Its use spread throughout the Western world after explorers, then armies, conquered parts of ancient Arabia. In early times, it was sold and traded in blocks, which were then ground into powder.

Although sugar is a carbohydrate that occurs naturally in every fruit and vegetable, it is found in the greatest quantities as sucrose in sugar cane, which is grown in the tropics, and sugar beets, which can be cultivated in colder climates. Juice extracted from the crushed cane or sliced
beets is then processed to make sugar.

Typically, the juice is boiled, and then chemicals are added to the solution to purify it. The resulting syrup is known as molasses. Continued processing separates crystals from the molasses and other by-products. The crystals are then dried and packaged as sugar.

The most common types of sugars found in supermarkets are as follows:

• Granulated white sugar — Often referred to as table sugar, this is the most commonly used type of sugar. There are different grades of granulated white sugar, and the size of the sugar crystal determines how it is used. Regular, extra-fine, or fine sugar is the sugar found most commonly in the sugar bowl and called for in most cookbook recipes. Superfine sugar or ultrafine sugar has the smallest crystal size and is often used in cakes and meringues and to sweeten fruits or iced drinks. Superfine sugar dissolves the most easily in water.
• Brown sugar — Brown sugar is sold in dark and light varieties. It is simply white sugar crystals coated in a molasses syrup to add a natural mellow flavor and color. Dark brown sugar has more color and a stronger molasses flavor. Its fuller flavor is called for in recipes for gingerbread and baked beans. Lighter types are usually used in baking. Neither type of brown sugar is considered raw sugar, although they do look similar to it.
• Confectioners’ sugar — Also known as powdered sugar, this is granulated sugar that has been ground into a powder. A small amount of cornstarch can be added to prevent clumping. Confectioners’ sugar typically is used to make icing, in whipping cream, and as a topping for desserts.
• Decorating or coarse sugar — Also called sugar crystals, decorating sugar has granules about four times larger than those of regular granulated sugar. It undergoes a special processing method to make it resistant to color change and breakdown at high temperatures. This makes it useful for making fondants or liqueurs.
• Sanding sugar — Also called colored sugar, sanding sugar is used for decorating and is characterized by large crystals. This is desirable in decorating because it gives the food a sparkling appearance.
• Flavored sugar — This is simply granulated sugar that has been combined or scented with various ingredients such as cinnamon or vanilla.
• Fruit sugar — Slightly finer than “regular” sugar, fruit sugar is used in dry mixes such as gelatin desserts, pudding mixes, and drink mixes. The more uniform crystals prevent separation or settling of smaller crystals to the bottom of the box.

In addition to sweetening items, sugar plays an important role in making food. It is a critical ingredient in bread, in which it provides food for yeast and thus helps bread to rise. It also adds to the flavor and crust color of baked goods and helps extend shelf life.

Granulated white sugar

In large amounts, sugar inhibits the growth of yeast and molds in jams and jellies. Sugar syrups protect frozen and canned foods from browning and withering.

In ice cream, beverages, baked goods, and other products, sugar adds bulk, texture, and body. It is also used in many condiments, such as ketchup and salad dressing, where it blends flavors, reduces acidity, and helps create a smooth texture.

Sugar has a long shelf life. Kept tightly wrapped and in a cool, dark place, it will keep for months or even years.

Preparation Tips: Sugar adds flavor and calories but little else. Therefore, it is best for most of us to minimize its role in our diet. Make a little go a long way. To do so:

• Add spices, such as cinnamon or nutmeg, to foods to jazz up flavor while reducing sweeteners used in them.
• Add fruit or yogurt to foods such as cereal, instead of a sweetener.
• Avoid sweetened soft drinks, and minimize fruit juices with added sugar. Better yet, drink water.
• Check labels for sugar or any one of the chemical names for it: glucose, sucrose, lactose, or fructose, to name just a few. Also, watch for corn syrup or malt syrup, two more widely used sweeteners in food manufacturing.

Serving Suggestions: Manufacturers can reduce the fat in many foods, but it is hard to do without sugar. Sugar is a key component of baked goods and desserts and is used to enhance the flavor of everything from sweet-and-sour stir-fry to ham. The amount of sugar used in a recipe often can be reduced by up to half without compromising the flavor. However, this is not always the case, so a bit of trial and error is required.

Honey

Honey

In ancient times, this thick, sweet, golden liquid was thought of as a healing agent, a gift from the gods, and a symbol of wealth. Today, this sweetener is still revered, although not as highly, for being a natural source of sweet flavor.

Honey is made by bees. The basic ingredient is nectar gathered from flowers. Enzymes in the bee’s saliva convert the nectar into honey. Essentially, this is a simple matter of chemistry, in which the sugar (sucrose) in nectar is converted into fructose and glucose.

As the phrase “busy as a bee” suggests, bees work hard to make honey. The bee must make up to 100,000 round trips from hive to flower and back just to make a quart of honey.

Honey is divided into three basic categories:

• Liquid honey, which is extracted from the comb
• Chunk-style honey, a liquid honey with pieces of the honeycomb
• Comb honey, a square or round piece of the honeycomb, with the honey inside

Within these three categories are hundreds of different types of honey. Honey’s color ranges from light to dark. The flavor ranges from mild to strong and depends on the type of flower from which the nectar was taken. In general, the darker the honey, the stronger the flavor.

One tablespoon of honey has about 64 calories. Although sugar has about 48 calories per tablespoon, honey does have some advantages over sugar. Its sweetening power is stronger. And honey, unlike other sweeteners, does contain trace amounts of vitamins and minerals.

If kept in a sealed container and a cool dark place, honey can be kept for a long time. Cooler temperatures, such as in a refrigerator, may cause honey to thicken. Warming it up, however, restores honey’s appearance. Its taste is not altered. However, very warm temperatures can change honey’s flavor.

Preparation Tips: Most honey sold in stores is pasteurized, filtered, and blended. Some cooks buy honey directly from an apiary because they believe that these processes alter or dull honey’s delicate flavor.

Honey also can be used as a substitute for sugar (about 1/2 cup honey for 1 cup of sugar) in many recipes. Keep in mind, however, that honey may cause food to brown more quickly. In addition, you will need to reduce the liquid in the recipe.

Serving Suggestions: Honey adds moisture to cakes, breads, and other confections. It is also an excellent topping for most baked goods. One other common use is as a glaze for meats such as ham.

Syrups

syrups

Sugar also comes in syrups — thick, viscous, sweet liquids that have various tastes and uses. The most common types include the following:

• Cane syrup — Thick and extremely sweet, cane syrup is made from sugar cane. It is a common ingredient in Caribbean and Creole recipes.
• Grain syrups — Sweet syrups can be made from several grains: barley, wheat, corn, or rice. They are not as sweet as sugar but are commonly used in food manufacturing because they do not readily form crystals. Corn syrup is perhaps the most widely used grain syrup. It is made by processing corn starch and is available in light and dark forms. Malt syrup, made from evaporated corn mash and sprouted barley, is another common grain syrup. It has a strong flavor and is used in bread making.
• Golden syrup — Popular in England, golden syrup is similar in consistency to corn syrup and has a golden color. It is made from sugar cane juice and has a toasted flavor. It is also known as light treacle.
• Maple syrup — The best known of all syrups, maple syrup is made by boiling the sap of certain species of maple trees (Acer saccharum) found mainly in Quebec, New York, and Vermont. This clear, subtly flavored syrup is sweeter than sugar and has a distinctive flavor.
• Molasses — Molasses, a dark viscous syrup, is a by-product of the sugar-making process and is generally used for flavoring foods or as a glaze. It is poured over foods as a condiment in some regions of the United States. Light molasses is produced during the first stages of the sugar-extraction process. Dark molasses is made during the second stage and is referred to as unsulfured molasses. Blackstrap molasses, made during the selesai stage of sugar production, is darkly colored and has an intense flavor.
• Black treacle — Black treacle is a thick, black, and sticky syrup. It is very similar to molasses and is a by-product of the sugar-production process. Black treacle is sweeter than molasses. A lighter-colored and lighter-flavored form is also available. Both are more common in England.
• Palm syrup — This dark, thick, and intensely flavored syrup is made from palms. It is an ingredient in some Asian recipes and usually is sold only at specialty markets.

Preparation Tips: Most grain syrups are used commercially. In contrast, maple syrup is typically used at home. Pure maple syrup is found in supermarkets.

However, pancake syrups commonly contain either a small portion of maple syrup or maple flavoring that is then mixed with a grain syrup. Many types of syrups are used to make candy. Keep in mind that syrups high in sugar have a higher boiling point than water.

Serving Suggestions: Maple syrup is typically used as a topping for waffles and pancakes. Numerous types of syrups can be used as glazes for meats (ham, in particular, and also poultry or fish) or on top of vegetables, such as carrots. Molasses also makes an excellent glaze.

Sugar syrups make an excellent glaze for pound cakes and bundt cakes.

Chocolate

chocolate

If there is one flavoring that everyone seems to love, it’s chocolate. Rich and sweet, with a distinctive taste that cannot be duplicated, chocolate is the universal favorite when it comes to flavor. In fact, ancient cultures even thought it was a gift from the gods, one with medicinal properties. It is perhaps the most popular sweet flavoring worldwide.

Chocolate is made from the beans of the cacao tree, which grows in the warm, humid weather of the equatorial regions. Like coffee beans, the beans of the cacao tree must be dried, chopped, and roasted before use.

The processing of the beans results in a dark brown liquid called chocolate liquor. This fluid — which is 55 percent fat, 17 percent carbohydrate, and 11 percent protein — is used to make virtually all types of chocolate.

Different types of chocolate contain varying amounts of cocoa butter — a vegetable fat derived from the cacao bean — and solids from the cacao bean.

Chocolate types include the following:

• Unsweetened — Sometimes referred to as baker’s chocolate, this dark, rich, and bitter chocolate does not have any sugar added to it. It is usually added to recipes in which sugar is an ingredient.
• Bittersweet — This dark, rich chocolate is comprised mostly of chocolate liquor, meaning it is rich in cacao solids, but it may have some milk solids and other flavorings added to it.
• Semisweet — A favorite of makers of chocolate chip cookies, semisweet chocolate contains more milk solids and other flavorings than bittersweet chocolate.
• Milk — The sweetest of all chocolates, milk chocolate has a light-brown color and a mild chocolate flavor.
• White — This ivory-colored chocolate contains no cacao bean solids, but it does contain cocoa butter, which gives it a rich, creamy mouth-feel. It differs from white almond bark or candy coating, which uses vegetable fat as a base instead of cocoa butter.
• Imitation chocolate — Typically used in baking chips, imitation chocolate replaces some or all of the cocoa fat with other vegetable fats. It is high in fat (mostly saturated fat) and does contain caffeine.

Cocoa is another common type of chocolate. It is a powdered form of chocolate made from chocolate liquor. However, all cocoa butter has been removed from it.

A tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder contains about 15 calories and just under 1 gram of fat.

Cocoa typically is not sweetened and is added to recipes in which sugar is used. There are two main types of cocoa: natural and “Dutch-process.” Natural cocoa is light in color and has a strong chocolate flavor. In contrast, Dutch-process has a milder taste but is darker in color.

Chocolate’s nutritional value varies. One ounce of unsweetened chocolate has 145 calories, 16 grams of fat, and 9 grams of saturated fat. In comparison, an ounce of semisweet chocolate has 135 calories, 9 grams of fat, and 5 grams of saturated fat. Chocolate also is a source of protein and contains trace amounts of vitamins and some minerals, such as potassium.

Chocolate should be stored in a cool, dark place and can be kept for several months. Dark chocolate can be stored for up to a year. Varying temperatures will cause lighter, whitish areas to appear on chocolate — something that does not affect taste and is resolved when the chocolate is melted. Chocolate also can be frozen, but it must be wrapped tightly to prevent moisture from damaging the chocolate when it is thawed.

Preparation Tips: Cocoa can be used as a substitute for chocolate in recipes. However, when this substitution is made, fat needs to be added to the cocoa to ensure that the selesai product will be moist. Each square of unsweetened chocolate can be replaced with 3 table-spoons of cocoa and 1 tablespoon of cooking oil.

Melting chocolate is difficult because it burns easily. For that reason, it is best to use a double boiler to melt chocolate. Avoid splashing any water into the melting chocolate because doing so can cause the chocolate to become hard and thus unusable. Chopping the chocolate into small bits before melting it helps achieve the smooth, even consistency that many recipes require.

Always look at the ingredient list of the chocolate you buy to ensure that you are not getting a substitute.

Serving Suggestions: Chocolate is the classic dessert ingredient, providing the flavoring power for cakes, tortes, frostings, mousses, creams, and other sweets too numerous to count.

Chocolate’s high fat content and high calories mean it should be used in moderation. Use chocolate as an accent to a healthier food — such as a dip for strawberries — rather than as the main ingredient. Reduced-calorie hot cocoa mixes are an excellent way to feed a chocolate craving without the fat and calories. Or, simply save chocolate for special occasions.

Top 10 natural sweeteners