Chocolate

White chocolate



Chocolate is made up of cocoa. The pure chocolate that make and process from the seed of cocoa tree is in fluid form which is known as chocolate liquor. The chocolate liquor is then processed into two components which are cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Cocoa butter is the fatty component of chocolate. Cocoa solid is a non fat component of chocolate. Cocoa solid give the flavor and color (brown) to the chocolate and cocoa butter give the smoothness and low melting point to chocolate. Although cocoa butter is the fatty component but then it composed of both saturated and unsaturated fats. In cocoa butter, 75% is in the form of oleic and stearic acids while 25% is those bad kind of fat.



Milk chocolate


There are 3 main types of chocolate: Milk chocolate, white chocolate and dark chocolate. Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate which contain chocolate with sugar and combine with milk powder or condensed milk. Milk chocolate is also sweet chocolate and contain cocoa butter and milk, this type of chocolate does not contain cocoa solids. Dark chocolate contain cocoa butter, cocoa solid and sugar.
Dark chocolate



Many research found that cocoa contain flavonoids epicatechin which is an antioxidant. Antioxidant is a molecule that slow down or prevent the oxidation (transfer of electrons) of other molecules by bonding them. This reduce the formation of free radicals that will damage our body cell. Epicatechin improve blood flow and this good for cardiac health. Flavonoids also reduce the clotting of blood and this reduce risk of stroke and heart attack. Besides, cocoa contains alkaloids such as theobromine and phenethylamine. Alkaloids are natural chemical compound which contain basic nitrogen atoms. Phenethylamine is a mild antidepressant and stimulant which similar to out dopamine and adrenaline hormone. Theobromine is a mild stimulant in concert with caffeine which make people addicted. Tryptophan is another chemical that found in cocoa and it trigger the brain to make serotonin (neurotransmitter that produce ecstasy feeling).


Disadvantage such as cocoa contains higher concentration of lead which cause mild lead poisoning. Lead poisoning can effect children's brain function and cause permanent neurodevelopmental deficits including impaired IQ. Cocoa is toxic to animals because of theobromine that found in cocoa. Animals such as horses, dogs, parrots, small rodents and cats can't metabolise chemical effectively and theobromine will remain in their blood. This will cause them heart attack, internal bleeding and death.


If you are a chocolate lover, you should buy dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate because dark chocolate has a higher cocoa content, lesser sugar and fat. Remember that the higher the cocoa content, the lesser the space for cocoa butter, sugar, milk and other substances that makes the chocolate. While, milk chocolate will increase the risk of obesity because cocoa butter is removed during manufacturing process and milk fat, sugars and other fats are added into it. This increase the caloric content of chocolate.


Although cocoa is good for us but what we have in chocolates is processed cocoa with other ingredients such as sugar, milk fats. Therefore, chocolate is not a healthy food and we should consume it in moderation. So if you want to eat chocolate as a snack, you must remember to choose dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate or white chocolate. And look at the nutrition value, you should choose the chocolate which has higher cocoa content, less sugar and fat.


I have found a formula which can calculate the percentage of cocoa butter and cocoa solid in a chocolate but i dont know whether it can be trusted or not. Just try it when you want to buy chocolate.

Step 1 : Note the serving size.

Step 2 : Note the total fat.

Step 3 : Divide the total fat by the serving size ( total fat / serving size ) then multiply 100%.
(this is the percentage of cocoa butter in the chocolate)

Step 4 : Subtract the cocoa percentage that given in the nutrition value and the percentage that you get from step 3. ( this is the percentage of cocoa solid in the chocolate ).

Are margarine still the healthy option???????

VS

Normally, we know that margarine is healthier than butter because butter is made up of animal oil which consist of saturated fatty acid and margarine is made up of plant oil which consist of unsaturated fatty acid. But research show that margarine contain trans-fatty acid which will cause heart disease. Then how the trans-fatty acid come from???And how the trans-fatty acid cause heart disease.

Saturated fatty acid

Saturated fatty acids are came from animal fats (meat) and tropical oils such as coconut oils and palm oils. Saturated fatty acid is a carboxylic acid that have no double bonds between the carbon atoms of the fatty acid chain and fully saturated with hydrogen atoms. It cannot react with others atom because all the carbon atoms having all the hydrogen atoms attached to it. Examples of saturated fatty acids are lauric acid (12 carbon atoms), myristic acid (14 carbon atoms), palmitic acid (16 carbon atoms) and stearic acid (18 carbon atoms). Most of the saturated fats are solid at room temperature. Saturated fatty acid will increase LDL cholesterol which is bad cholesterol and decrease the HDL cholesterol which is good cholesterol. This will block arteries and led to heart disease and stroke.

Unsaturated fatty acid

Unsaturated fatty acids are came from vegetable oils. Unsaturated fatty acid is a carboxylic acid that has double bond between the carbon chain. When there is only one double bond, it is known as mono-unsaturated fatty acid. If there is more than one double bond then it is known as poly-unsaturated fatty acid. For example, oleic acid (one double bond), linoleic acid (two double bonds) and arachidonic acid (four double bonds). This double bond make the carbon chains have kinks which cause the molecules cannot get close together. Therefore, unsaturated fatty acids are in liquid form at room temperature. Unsaturated is said to be healthier because our body can break down unsaturated fatty acid easily and used them more quickly for our body's metabolism.

There are two types of double bonds arrangement: cis unsaturated fatty acids and trans unsaturated fatty acids. In cis unsaturated fatty acid, the hydrogen atoms are on the same side . In trans unsaturated fatty acid, the hydrogen atoms are on the different side. In cis unsaturated fatty acid, the cis double bond form a sharp angle while trans double bond form a straight line which similar to a saturated fat but there are small kink at the double bond site. Most of the vegetable oil are in the cis double bond.

During hydrogenation, hydrogen is absorbed into the fatty acid molecules to remove the double bond and make the unsaturated molecule become saturated. Full hydrogenation result in converting unsaturated fatty acid into saturated fatty acid. Partial hydrogenation result in addition of hydrogen atom to reduce number of double bonds. Commercial hydrogenation is partial to obtain a malleable mixture of fats that is solid at room temperature. During partial hydrogenation, some of the cis unsaturated fatty acids form trans unsaturated fatty acid. Some of the hydrogen atoms flip flop and the hydrogen atoms are moved into different side. During hydrogenation, natural essential fatty acids are destroyed and the new artificial isomers are structurally similar to saturated fats, this lack of the essential metabolic activity of the parent compounds and inhibit the enzymatic desaturation of linoleic and linolenic acid.

For example, when oil only use for once like frying eggs, then only a few cis bonds are converted into trans bonds. But, if oil is constantly reused like the oil reusing in fast food to fry French fries, more and more of cis bonds are converted to trans bond. Trans fats are same as saturated fats which increase LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) and decrease HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol). Trans double bond is chemically less active than a cis double bond. But the connection between trans fats are strong and reliable. Trans double bond cause inflammation inside the body which signals the deposition of cholesterol in artery.

Natural-occuring trans fat

There are some natural-occuring trans fat conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) found in animal products which is good kind of trans fat. Research shown that conjugated linoleic acid can be a fat burner which help to burn fat by decreasing abdominal fat but not decrease body weigh. Conjugated linoleic acid also can be used as a bone booster which help to increase bone mineral density in whole body.

LDL(Low-density lipoprotein)

LDL is known as bad cholesterol. When too much of LDL circulates in the blood, it can form plaque, thick, hard deposit that in the arteries and this will narrow the arteries and make them less flexible. This condition known as atherosclerosis.

HDL (High-density lipoprotein)

HDL cholesterol is known as "good" cholesterol because it protects against heart attack. HDL cholesterol carry cholesterol away from the arteries back to liver. HDL also remove excess cholesterol from arterial plaque which will slow down cholesterol build up in the arteries.

Therefore,

The more solid the margarine, the more the trans fatty acids and the semi-liquid margarine contain the least trans fat. So we need to avoid solid margarine and choose a semi-liquid margarine.

As long as , they are not being hydrogenated then it is a good fat which is monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fatty acid. These oils also contain the essential fatty acids which included omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. These acid cannot be produced by our body and they are necessary for us.

So, we need to check the food label first before we buy it to reduce consuming trans fat and saturated fat. Please care of your health.

Artificial food flavour~~~

When u bought a banana cake , did you smell that it has a strong banana smell ?Do u think that the smell is come from the banana itself? The answer is NO. Food flavour is added to the cake to enhance the smell of the banana and make the cake strong of banana smell. By using this food flavour, it is the cheapest way for the food manufacturer to produce foods.

There are three different of flavour; natural flavouring, natural identity flavouring and artificial flavouring. Natural flavours are extract from plant or animal sources, by physical, microbiological or enzymatic processes. Nature-identical flavour are obtained by synthesis or isolated through chemical processes which are chemically identical. Artificial flavours are obtained by chemical and they are not extract from plant or animal sources.

One of the chocolate roll is made by real chocolate and another is made by artificial chocolate. Can you guess that which is real and which is not?

The answer is the big chocolate roll is an artificial. Now we can't differentiate the real and the artificial by aroma, taste and appearance. We can only differentiate them by reading the nutrition label. Sometimes, the food manufacturer using "flavour" and "flavoured" instead of using "natural" or "artificial". If the product that really contain real chocolate, it can be called "chocolate flavoured" while those contain artificial flavour, it only can be known as"chocolate flavour" (which without "ed").

Food flavouring mainly contain of ester which has a pleasant smell. Artificial flavouring can be produced by esterification from alcohol and acid (usually a carboxylic acid). I'm going to introduce some of the artificial flavour in here.

i) Buthyl-butanoate

This ester give a pineapple aroma which is an organic compound and formed by butanol and butyric acid. It is insoluble in water and a clear, colourless liquid.

ii) Isoamyl acetate

Isoamyl acetate also known as isopentyl acetate which is an organic compound that formed from isoamyl alcohol and acetic acid. This ester give a strong banana aroma.



iii) Methyl anthranilate

This ester give a grape scent. It is a clear to pale yellow liquid and slightly soluble in water.It is combustible. It is formed by esterification of anthranilic acid and methanol.

iv) Benzyl acetate

This ester give a jasmine smell. It can be found naturally in many flowers. It is formed by benzyl alcohol and acetic acid.

v) Ethyl formate


This ester give a raspberries flavour and it is formed by esterification of ethanol and formic acid (methanoic acid)




that, snacks such as potato chips (my favourite) contain artificial food flavour and food enhancer. Food enhancer give us salty taste or sweet taste or sour taste. The most popular enhancer is Monosodium glutamate (MSG) or known as glutamic salt.

MSG which made by using bacterial or yeast to ferment carbohydrate. It is a white crystalline powder. When it is in our mouth, the saliva will break it into sodium cations and glutamate anions. If it is eaten at a customary levels and not consume too often then it is safe for most people because many researches had carried out and shown that MSG is not good to consume.

Side effect of food additives such as

a) worsening of asthmatic symptoms

b) increase hyperactive behaviour especially in kids

c) cause allergy

d)Glutamic acid is a neurotransmitter that excites our neurons not just in our tongues. This electrical charging of neurons is what makes foods with added free glutamic acid taste so good. Unfortunately, the free glutamic acid can cause problem to our brain. Our brains have many receptors for glutamic acid and some areas, such as the hypothalamus do not have an impermeable blood-brain barrier, so free glutamic acid from food sources can get into the brain, this can injure and sometimes kill the neurons.

e)A burning sensation in the back of the neck, forearms and chest

f) Chest pain

g) Nausea

h) Rapid heartbeat

i)Drowsiness

To maintain a good health, we must maintain the habit of eating healthy by following the food pyramid as shown below. A healthy body and healthy mind are important so that YOU can live longer and enjoy longer. I also need to say bye bye to my favourite PRINGLES so we work together to minimize the intake of junk food so can live a long and healthy life.

SO START FROM NOW MINIMIZE CONSUMING FOOD THAT CONTAIN MSG AND OTHER UNHEALTHY FOOD....

Alcoholic drinks.................

There are 3 types of alcoholic drinks which are beer, wine and spirits (distilled beverage). All this alcoholic drinks contain ethanol, C₂H₅OH which is one type of alcohol.


Do you know how the brewers get the ethanol??The answer is ethanol can be obtained by using the yeast in fermentation and brewing of starches. Starches such as malted barley, rice and other cereal grains. And do you know what is the differences between the beer, wine and distilled beverage??I will write about the process of production of beer, wine and distilled beverage to show out the differences among them.

Production of Beer.

i)Milling

Milling is a process in which break the out layer of malt barley and break the malt starch also to let the enzyme to penetrate the starch more efficiently during the mashing process.

This is malted barley.


This is a milling machine.

ii)Mashing

Mashing is the process which mix the malted barley from milling with hot water to form a mash. During this, malt starch + malt enzyme -----> simple sugars

The mash temperature normally lies between 62^oC to 65^oC . This is the optimum temperature for amylase to breakdown the starch molecules into fermentable sugars such as glucose, maltose and maltotriose. This sugar then dissolve in the liquor surrounding the mash to form a sugary solution called wort. Then the wort will run off from the mash tun into work kettles.

iii)Wort boiling

This is a wort kettle.

Superheated water is pumped in the wort kettles. This water is kept at a high pressure so can be heated to a temperature of 135^oC. There are 3 reasons why should boil it vigorously. First, this can sterilise the wort completely to breakdown the enzymes. Secondly, boil it vigorous is important in the isomerism of alpha acid into isohumulones which impart bitterness to the beer. This is why the beer taste bitter. Hops have many functions such as balance the sweetness of the malt with bitterness, contributing a variety of desirable flavors and aromas and having an antibiotic effect to less desirable microorganisms in the activity of brewer's yeast. Degree of bitterness is depended on the degree of insoluble alpha acids are isomerized. Third, the proteins and tannins from the malt and hops are dissolved so that these components will not combine to form a complex which will cause a haze in cask, keg or bottle.
This is hops.

iv) Separation

Whirlpool separator is an upright cylindrical vessel with a dished base. In the whirlpool separator create a vortex in the liquid. During this separation, precipitated protein and tannin and hops are separated out from the wort.

v)Wort cooling

The temperature of the hot bitter wort is 90^oC, it passed through a paraflow or heat exchanger to make the temperature decrease and become 16^oC - 20^oC. Cold water is pumped in the opposite direction to the hot bitter wort and a thin sheet of stainless steel is separated both of the liquid and the heat exchange between the two liquids. The wort is cooled because 16^oC - 20^oC is the optimum temperature for yeast.

vi)Fermentation

The cooled wort is then flow into the fermenting vessel. This is where the yeast is added.
C₆H₁₂O₆ , Glucose + Yeast -----> 2C₂H₅OH , ethanol + 2CO₂ + energy

During fermentation, a thick head is formed on the surface of the fermenting beer. When fermentation is completed, the yeast is skimmed off and collected in a large trough. The fermented beer is remained in the fermenting vessel to allow a certain amount of maturation and settling of yeast left in suspension after skimming.

This is a yeast.

vii)Cask racking

The beer is filled into a cask then the casks are sealed with a plastic shive in the bung hole and stored in a cellar. Secondary fermentation is occurred in the cask to build up a pressure of CO₂ which this gas will dissolve into the beer and produce natural sparkle. The secondary fermentation is important because the excess CO₂ which produced from secondary fermentation has a cleansing effect on the beer by removing certain volatile flavours and aromas associated with freshly racked beer.

Production of Wine.

i) Harvest




During picking grapes to use in wine making process, harvest time is important. Grapes are havested either by hand or mechanically. Grapes that havested by hand can ensure that only the best grapes are havested and produced a good quality of wine.

ii) Crushing and de-stemming

Crushing is the process which squeezing the berries and breaking the skins of the grapes to start to liberate the content of the berries. White wine and red wine have differenced in destemming. When making white wine, the stem are placed in the press with the berries.The presence of stems allow juice to flow past flattened skins. When making red wines, stems of the grapes are removed because the stems contain a high tannin content which give the wine a vegetal aroma due to present of 2-methoxy 3-isopropylprazine. Tannin caused a dry and puckery feeling in the mouth after consume of red wine. Most red wine get the colour from the grape skins. Therefore, the grape skin is left to in contact with the grape juice. When crushing for white wine, it just need the grape juice and avoid to extract skins or grapeseeds.

iii) Fermentation

The grape juices are then put into the fermentation vats where alcoholic fermentation takes place. Yeast is then added to the fermentation vats.

sugar from grape juice + yeast-------> ethanol (l) + CO2 (g)

The phosphates from ATP are attached to the sugar and the six-carbon sugar molecules begin to split into three-carbon pieces and go through a rearrangemnt reaction (isomerism). During isomerism, the carboxylic carbon atom is released as carbon dioxide and the rest of the components become acetaldehyde. The absence of oxygen convert the acetaldehyde to ethanol. Some of the acetaldehyde will convert to acetic acid by oxidation. Carbon dioxide is visible in the bubbles form.

For red wines, the temperature during fermentation is 22^oC to 25^oC and for white wines, is in between 15^oC to 18 ^oC. When sugar content is too low for fermentation, sugar can be added by chaptalization. This fermentation turn grape juice into an alcoholic beverage.

Carbonic maceration is another type of fermentation which add yeast into the grape and fermentation takes place inside the individual grape berries.

iv) Ageing

The wine are then filled into stainless steel fermentation vessel or oak barrels kept under airlock to avoid wine from oxidation. ln the room that keep the stainless stell fermentation vessel must have a specific humidity, heat and light. If not, it will make the wine change its character.

Sparkling wine such as Champagne is a wine that have more carbon dioxide to make it fizzy and sugar added after the second fermentation to make it become sweeter.

Production of distilled beverage.

Distilled beverages contain higher concentration of alcohol which higher than 15%. Distilled beverages include brandy, vodka, whisky, gin, rum, tequila... Distilled beverages are produced by the same process as wine but then they need one more process which is distillation.

i)Brandy

Brandy is produced by distilling white wine. The white wine is distilled in a distilling vessel. The wine is heated then all alcohol evaporates while the percentage of water no change. The liquid that is obtained at the end of the distillation is a very pure, colourless, odourless and tasteless distilled liquid with an alcohol percentage of 96.5%. This distilled liquid is then mixed with the heated non-alcoholic wine until the percentage of alcohol around 40%.

ii) Vodka

Vodka contain a very high alcohol percentage which up to 40%-50%. Vodka is produced from grains instead of malted barley or grapes. The process of production by using grain is the same as the production of wine. The alcohol vapors are collected after distillation and it is dilluted with water until percentage of alcohol become 40%.

iii) Whiskey

Whiskey is smilar to vodka but then whiskey has one more process which vodka doesnt need. It is maturation. Whiskey can be continued from the vodka which mean vodka can be used to produced whiskey. The vodka is poured into wooden barrels for maturation so that more aromas are given to the whiskey. Whiskey has a lower percentage of alcohol than vodka.

iv)Rum

The production of rum is similar to the production process of brandy but then only the material that used is not the same. Rum use juice of a sugar cane or molasses. It undergoes a maturation and store from a year to several years.

v)Gin

The production of gin can be continued from the production process of vodka. Gin is added juniper berries and other herbs to the vodka. Gin need not maturation and after the production of gin, it is filled in bottles.

Effect of alcoholic beverages.

So next time must think before u drink. Dont consume it tooooooooooo much and dont think that they are "herbal tea".... And try to consume it only once in a while.

Detergent in our daily use

I think everyone tried before stained your lovely shirt with coffee and whatever that make your shirt dirty. And after you soak in the water with detergent, the stubborn stains and dirt disappear. Do you know what are they in your detergent to help you wash away the grease, oil and dirt? And how the detergent and soap wash way the grease?

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Detergent

Detergent is a salt that formed from neutralization between alkyl hydrogen sulphate and an alkali. The most effective detergent is Sodium Lauryl Sulphate, C₁₂H₂₅NaO₄S.

First process involve the production of lauryl hydrogen sulphate,

lauryl alcohol, CH₃(CH₂)₉CH₂OH + sulphuric acid, H₂SO₄→ lauryl hydrogen sulphate, CH₃(CH₂)₉CH₂OSO₃H + H₂O

Second process involve the neutralisation of lauryl hydrogen sulphate,

lauryl hydrogen sulphate, CH₃(CH₂)₉CH₂OSO₃H + sodium hydroxide, NaOH → sodium lauryl sulphate, CH₃(CH₂)₉CH₂OSO₃Na + H₂O

The chemistry structure in the above is sodium lauryl sulphate, the circle part is polar end which is negatively charged and it is hydrophilic which attract water. The tail part is non-polar end and has no charge. It is hydrophobic which repel water. The pictures below show how the detergent remove the grease on the shirt.

First, the hydrophobic tail of the anion part dissolves in the grease which is shown as brown colour, the hydrophilic part dissolves in the water.

After that, the grease started to loosen and lift off from the surface of the shirt . Therefore, rubbing and scrubbing help to faster the loosen of the grease from the surface of the shirt.

The grease is surrounded by the anion part and the grease is total lifted off from the surface of the shirt and suspended in water.

Besides that, there are many substances added into the detergent. For example, surfactant, biological enzymes, water softener and optical brightener.

Surfactant is added to keep oil and water from forming into layers. Surfactant have a hydrophilic side and hydrophobic side. The hydrophobic side stick to the oil or grease and hydrophilic side stick to the water. Surfactant also lower the surface tension of the water to allow detergent to wet surface and penetrate into, under, and around the grease.

Biological enzymes are the enzymes that digest protein, fats and carbohydrate on the shirt so it make the stain on your shirt disappear. For example, amylase digest starch stain, lipases digest oil stain and protease digest protein stain.

Optical brightener are used to enhance the appearance of the colour of shirt. Optical brighteners absorb ultraviolet radiation and re-emit the blue light and reduce the yellow colour of the shirt and make it become whiter. For example, fluorescent. Fluorescent contain phosphor which is the substance that emits visible light in response to some sort of radiation. A phosphor converts the energy in the UV radiation from a black light into visible light.

Water softener is used to reduce the calcium ions and magnesium ions in the hard water and make reduce the formed of the scum. Water softener based on the ion exchange principle which the calcium ions and magnesium ions are exchanged for sodium or potassium ions to make the water softer and give it a smoother feeling. Examples of the water softening are potassium chloride and sodium chloride.

How tha scum is formed on the shirt?

Scum normally is formed by using soap because soap contains salt such as Sodium stearate and Sodium palmitate , when calcium ions and magnesium ions in hard water mix with it, a insoluble salt is form which is Calcium stearate / Calcium palmitate.

Ca2+ (aq) + 2C₁₇H₃₅COO-(aq) ----> 2C₁₇H₃₅COOCa(s)

Of course, different detergent companies have their own "formula" in making their detergents. The chemicals that i introduce in the above are only some common and important ingredients in detergent.

Hope you enjoy the details of the detergent.