My Exploration of Hot Cocoa

For my environmental class I was assigned to research a food choice. With hot cocoa, the main ingredient is chocolate. Most chocolate, hiefer.org says, comes from the cacao fruit, is grown on trees and starts off as a green cacao pod then turns yellow when it's ripe. The inside of the fruit is white with seeds and supposedly already sweet according to Jason Woods. While the fruit is cut and fermented for a week, the white membrane is taken off hense the color. The seeds are turned into powder then paste. The specific chocolate I used in this instance is Dove Milk Chocolate, sugar, and water. Vanilla is recommended in hot chocolate for flavor but I couldn't find the vanilla in our cabinet. The water I used was filtered from tap. I tried to not add to much sugar but then it'll taste to much like chocolate and water.

After wondering where sugar comes from I discovered that 55% of sugar comes from India and Brazil, says a source from theecologist.org and is usually from sugar cane plants. Sugar cane plants have such a great environmental impact that it has been accused for great loss of biodiversity for the reason that it uses large places. The sugar cane plant is water intensive and the world bank averaged its worth to 11.6 billion each year. So not only does it harm people, it also harms the other living species by invading territory. Additionally, sugar is tasty but too much is very unhealthy especially for people with diabetes. There are myths of some sugar alternatives like synthetic sweeteners but there is no study yet to prove them healthy or not. These alternatives Joslin.org says, are under the brands Sweet 'N Low, Splenda, Sweet One or Sunset . However, there are sources like theecologist.org that says that healthy alternatives are ones like Stevia, Xilitol, Coconut Sugar, Date Sugar, honey, maple syrup, fruit juice, molasses, brown rice syrup and Barley malt syrup.
If we take an even closer look at the ingredients, Dove Milk Chocolate is made of even more sugar, cocoa butter, chocolate, skim milk, milk fat, lactose, chocolate processed with alkali, soy lecithin and natural and artificial flavors. Alkali processed or, Dutched, means that a large percentage of the nutrients are stripped. Sugar and chocolate are my favorite ingredients which is why I chose hot cocoa. But it's important to remember that if sugar is not taken in moderation, our health is affected badly.
References:
The ABCs of Sugar Substitutes." Joslin Diabetes Center. N.p., n.d. Web.
Briggs, Mark. "Top 10 Alternatives." Ecologist. N.p., n.d. Web.
Greger, Michael. "Healthy Chocolate Milkshakes." Nutition Facts. N.p., n.d Web.
Woods, Jason. "Where Does Chocolate Come From?" Heifer. N.p., n.d. Web.