Shall I compare thee to heavenly bliss? Thou art more decadent than Cleopatra’s milk and honey bath. And what could be more deserving of an ode worthy of Shakespearean sonnet verse than that tiny bean of bliss we know as cacao. From the moment I drank my first chocolate milk as a toddler, I, like so many others, have enjoyed a love-hate relationship with chocolate. Though I must confess mine is more a love-love relationship with little or no hate involved except for the extra pounds it adds to the waistline. And even then, I’d sooner add an extra fifteen to twenty minutes to my exercise routine, than contemplate giving up my chocolate bliss. With a history of diabetes in my family bloodline, I know I should exercise more discipline around my consumption of chocolate, but to this day it remains a nemesis. I’ve tried most “healthy” eating programs in a bid to manage the weak diabetic genes and keep blood glucose levels in healthy ranges without the use of unnatural, pharmaceutical products. I’m usually able to adapt to these healthy programs within days and today follow a mostly vegan / vegetarian eating program. But when it comes to chocolate all resolve heads for the nearest exit and I find myself weak-willed and grinning like a Cheshire cat in the corner of Koko Black, Chocolat, Max Brenners or any inviting chocolate shop I can find in Melbourne’s back alleys or front alleys for that matter.  

My saving grace is that I don’t want chocolate every day and sometimes I don’t want it every week and rare though it may be, there have been times when I’ve gone without if for months. But when I do want it even the most powerful, motivational guru couldn’t talk me out of finding the next blissful bite.

And since reading some of Dr Neal Barnard’s research on addictive foods, chocolate being one of the four offenders, I’ve recently comforted myself with the thought that it’s not my underdeveloped willpower to blame. Chocolate, according to Dr Barnard does not just tickle the taste buds, it actually works inside the brain much the same way opiate drugs do so has us coming back for more despite health risks. And in realizing this, I’ve had to let go of my proud slogan “I’ve never touched drugs” and must openly admit that I’ve more than indulged in the chocolate drug – it may not be a powerful drug or an extremely harmful one, but it’s a drug nevertheless and I’m a junkie. So while I consider giving it up for the umpteenth time, let me find the movie Chocolat. At least I can enjoy others indulging as the movie unfolds till I get to my favourite scene where the dogmatic pastor wakes up covered in chocolate after having ploughed his way through every chocolate treat in the window display of Mademoiselle Vianne’s chocolateria. Forget Cleopatra and her milk and honey bath, I’d sooner sink into a bath of chocolate bliss…