Chocolate

 Dare I say more. Yes! Chocolate! Hurray for chocolate. Why not buy chocolate? It's one sale...it's a treat for a long day at work, it's the holidays right! Oh, how we love chocolate!
      Have you ever walked through the doors of your neighbourhood walmart, superstore or local convienence store only to find chocolate winking right at you as you try to walk by! In today's world, chocolate has become the worlds largest and most fast growing 'treat'. Why is this? Is it the tremendous amount of sugar which strikes a euphamistic cord everytime you bite or is it the texture which comforts the lining of your mouth! Either way, chocolate seems to be everywhere and is here to stay. The next question whic would logically follow would be...Well if everyone is buying it, than I too must have some, right?
      Well, what you may not know is that chocolate (white, dark or milk choc) actually drives up your ecological footprint (the amount of land measured in Hectres which you need to sustain life) but is sold at a far cheaper price pount for pound than that of an apple or clemintines. Why is it that a food which takes sooo much energy to be made can be sold much cheaper than something picked from a tree? Logically, as a parent or student struggling for funds, chocolate would be the decision over the apple because of its availability and lower price. Well, if this is the case and we turn on the television only to hear that we must lower our individual ecological footprint. How can we do so?  Prime ministers and foreign country leaders all over the world advocate flying less frequently, car pooling or even switching to more grains and less red meat in your diet......But what about chocolate? Perhaps, if we restricted the amount of chocolate we consumed anytime of the year and especailly during the holiday season, would we not be lowering the amount of energy required to sustain more people on this finite planet?? Food for thought....
       With regards to availability, have you ever noticed how much chocolate there is in the stores prior to different holidays. Chocolate companies have personalized chocolate and catered it to certain holidays like christmas with chocolate santas for the kids and on easter with the cream egg. Who can forget the "limited time cream egg McFlurry". Chocolate companies continue to strike our stomachs when those holidays are over. For example, as soon as halloween is over the Christmas chocolate festivities begin! Oh, and that halloween chocolate is now on sale! So it is even more cheap than it was before. Therefore, I should buy it! Every single North American holiday is celebrated with chocolate folks. I challenge you to celebrate those holidays for what they are and not with chocolate!
       Also, along with choosing the apple over the chocolate, maybe we can cure the obesity pandemic whic has spread coast to coast in this great nation we call Canada. In our parents generation 1 in 4 men are classified as overweight in Canada and 1 in 3 men in the U.S suffer a worse statistic. Therefore, if we keep an unlimited amount of high fat, high sugar and high caloric food such as chocolate flood our shelves, are we not going to see these stats heightened in the generation to come???
       Interestingly enough, food prices are predicted to climb in upcoming months due to global fuel scarcities and uprisings around the world. However, I can guarantee to all of you that the last "food" product  to go up in price will be chocolate!
      Next time you walk in to your local store and see colorful, delightful chocolate and you get that unstoppable desire to have it, I challange you to take a step back and think not only about what you are doing to your planet, but what you are doing to your body as well.

Ryan Fahey
CPTN Canada
canfitpro Fitness Instructor