title: Sin and pleasure: the history of chocolate in medicine.
abstract: In ancient Mayan texts cocoa is considered a gift of the gods: Pre-Columbian populations used chocolate as medicine, too. After the discovery of America, chocolate was introduced in Europe, but Christian Europe looked to this new exhilarating drink with extreme suspiciousness and criticism. From this reaction, the necessity derived to appeal to the reasons of health, with which doctors and scientists committed themselves to explain that chocolate was good for the body. However, during the Enlightment, the road of therapy separated from that of taste, and chocolate mainly maintained its leading role of excipient, bearing the burden, over time, of a negative valence, being associated with obesity, dental problems, unhealthy lifestyle, and so forth. The rehabilitation of chocolate has arisen only in recent times, re-establishing that value that Linnaeus himself credited to chocolate, calling the generous plant Theobroma cacao, food of the gods.
authors.affiliation: History of Medicine and Medical Humanities, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, School of Sciences of Human Health, University of Florence , Largo Brambilla 3, 50134 Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Donatella
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lippi
mesh_terms: D002099:Cacao / Q000266:history* / Q000378:metabolism; D005060:Europe; D005502:Food / Q000266:history*; D006666:History of Medicine; D049668:History, 15th Century; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D057181:Pleasure
keywords: cacao; chocolate; history of medicine