The Essence Of Adventure

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By Tony A Grayson

Do you like to take vacations? Where do you go? Depending on your answers, you will tag yourself somewhere in a range between the cautious traveler and the thrill seeker. There is nothing uncool about being anywhere on the range. Folks tend to take vacations that fit their age, experience, temperament, judgement, and budget. Also, a thrill seeker who has a young family with children, will be impeded by responsibility, so it evens out.

What is the essence of adventure? I define it this way: It is an adrenaline rush of exhilaration, an experience that combines freedom with vulnerability precisely when a spark is fired by sheer terror! If you survive it, you will have a hair-raising memory that you will share with other people for the rest of your life. If you are harmed by it, you have my sympathy.

I cannot fit examples of my adventures into this article, but I can tell you how to have your own adventure. Play Airport Bingo (Railway Bingo, Cruise Ship Bingo, Taxi Bingo), a game in which you and your favorite person snag two discount tickets, a bargain basement savings to fill in an otherwise empty pair of seats. Then, just go! Don't even pack a suitcase! Realize the power of this. Those tickets are the way to go everywhere. The fact that you don't know where you are going until you spontaneously buy them is the thrill!

Suppose that you chicken out. After all, you have no luggage, no guaranteed place to stay when you get to your impromptu destination, and you can think of dozens of reasons not to do this. But, you do have your favorite somebody to share the experience, and figuring out what you will do is like finding the pieces of a puzzle. You live in the now. It is easy to chicken



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What Makes Chocolate Special and Why is it a Super Food?

Pixabay Creative Commons

By Desiree Michels

Over the past few years, cocoa has become known as a superfood with many, many health benefits. Now, as a chocoholic, I was more than pleased to discover that my favourite treat was also healthy, but I wanted to find out more. So I did some research, contacted chocolate suppliers and producers, searched the net and even asked a dietician friend. This is what I came up with.
What’s in Our Favourite Bar?

The chocolate we eat is produced from cocoa which is an excellent source of iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorous and zinc. Other chemical compounds that occur naturally in the cocoa bean are procyanidin, epicatechin, flavonoids, catechins, procyanidins, and other antioxidants.

These usually won’t appear in the list of ingredients printed on the products we get from chocolate suppliers because they are not additives but a natural part of the cocoa bean.

Impressive Names. What do They Do?

Flavonoids do not refer to the flavour. They refer to the pigmentations found in all fruits and vegetables which provide the plant protection from toxins in the air and ground and also help it repair cell damage. One of the things we are urged to do, as part of a healthy diet, is to eat different coloured fruit and vegetables. This isn’t for aesthetic reasons but because of the health benefits we gain from the various flavonoids found in what we eat. Cocoa liquor contains significant amounts of flavonoids including those known as flavanols, which studies have shown can improve vascular health.

Antioxidants, like flavonoids, occur naturally in plants and vegetables and include vitamins such as A (beta-carotene), C, E, and catechins. They are extremely effective in preventing and, to some extent, even repairing cell damage caused by free radicals found in our bodies and the environment. However, research suggests that the best way to increase your antioxidant levels is by eating foods that are naturally rich in them rather than taking supplements. So we come back to our favorite treat.

The Darker the Better

We all have a sweet tooth and one of our favourite confections that chocolate suppliers love to place on sweet shop shelves is creamy, decadent milk chocolate which has a lower percentage of cocoa solids than dark. However, if you want to get maximum health benefits, then darker is better!

It’s the cocoa solids that have all those flavonoids and antioxidants locked up in it. So, the higher the percentage of cocoa solids (60% is the minimum), the higher the levels of flavonoids and antioxidants.

In an increasingly health-conscious world, the demand for products with high percentages of cocoa solids (70%, 80%, and even 90%) is steadily increasing. Sweet shops and supermarkets are devoting shelf space and room for special displays to promote the many excellent brands on offer from chocolate suppliers.

So there you have it in a nutshell (a cocoa-nut shell), why chocolate is more than just a sweet treat but also a health food – but, like anything, in moderation.