What if an animal eats too much chocolate?

Last updated on August 7, 2022

Chocolate in a Paleo Context

Cocoa or chocolate is a superfood, right? Chocolate was just starting to be appreciated as a surprisingly healthy diet food when my book was published: What do Women REALLY Want? Chocolate! It was propitious!

But Paleo people are haters. Lots of strict rules there. The Kitchn says well…some dark chocolate is permitted if you eat paleo.

If you’re following the Paleo diet and need a chocolate fix, the rule of thumb is the higher the percentage of cacao, the better.

Choose an option that’s at least 70% dark chocolate and dairy-free.

Yeah, so far not liking it. Straight dark chocolate won’t take you very far. They do have a recipe for paleo brownies, but it sounds gross. Coconut flour? Nope.

She says no other chocolate is allowed, because legumes are not permitted. So I looked it up and the National Institute of Health disagrees with her.

Cacao (or cocoa) beans are technically not beans or legumes, but rather the seeds of the fruit of the Theobroma cacao tree.

Use your best judgement. Now, done with caveman eating, on with the cartoon!

Chocolate in prehistoric times: it’s over 10 million years old!

Well…the joke in the cartoon is that dinosaurs were super fat after gorging on chocolate. But how old is chocolate, anyway?

I had to look it up. Smithsonian says cocoa was invented 2000 years ago…but it could be earlie. (Doesn’t sound too scientific to me.)

Science Daily says, Nope. The cacao tree is over 10 million years old!! Now, dinosaurs (supposedly) died out 65 million years ago, which would mean they missed out on dessert…but there could have been baby cocoa beans in the making…:)

I love this cartoon, but in case it’s not clear at first glance, the dinosaurs in this illustration are very very fat, not just the normal Brontosaurus, Tyrannosaurus Rex, and Stegosaurus. They’re supposed to look obese.

(Not that being fat is a result of,  or even usually a result from, liking chocolate. :))

It was hard making them look fat fat. But I welcome all prehistoric beasts onto my drawing board, so that was fun.

WARNING: Do not feed chocolate to an animal ever!!!

You probably know it’s lethal to dogs. Also to any animal or bird, really. Don’t try it. (Dinosaurs probably have stronger stomachs.)

My chocolate book on Amazon.