The antioxidants in cocoa are supposed to be so good that even the Ultra-Prevention folks advise eating some dark chocolate even though it comes mixed with sugar. But I know what happens when I eat sugar and I don't like it. So I got a couple of 4 oz bars of unsweetened chocolate. Put them to melt in a pot over lowest possible heat. Added a stick of butter, 4 droppers-full of stevia, and a little milk. When I added the milk the melted mixture took on a fudgy texture.
I covered some frozen bing cherries with some of it. I spread some more out to be plain chocolate candy, and mixed in raisins into the rest and spread it out to be raisin candy. I poured a cup of milk and some cinnamon into the pot, stirred it around over low heat to mix in the chocolate that was stuck to the pot and had a Most Enjoyable cup of Hot Chocolate with NO SUGAR. It was as delicious as any I've had and more so than most. The candy was good too - a bit fudgy/grainy textured compared to commercial chocolate bars, and not as sweet because I prefer less sweet. I'm going to work on this and perfect it. And not use frozen cherries - they thawed and leaked. But they were delicious.
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Here's an interesting sign of the times: TUMS for Children. When I was a kid I'd never even HEARD of heartburn. Never experienced it until I was pregnant. Now enough kids are suffering from acid indigestion / heartburn / reflux to market TUMS to them? And on reading the label: the ingredients are the same - the same as the EXTRA STRENGTH tums, not the original regular tums.
Dare I suggest that the national diet of sweetened everything and HFCS in the sodas that are everywhere might have something to do with this?
