Most of us know chocolate as a deliciously decadent sweet that we eat in cookies, cakes, candy bars, and other desserts. But around the world, many people have prepared chocolate as a bitter, frothy drink—or even as part of a main meal served at dinnertime.
And, chocolate isn’t simply a snack or key ingredient in cooking. Over the centuries, many cultures have used the seeds from which chocolate is made—cacao (kah KOW)—as a sacred symbol in religious ceremonies. Plus, medicinal remedies featuring chocolate have been used as household curatives across the globe.
Select which part of chocolate’s use in foods, faith, or physical health you’d like to examine first: