SAY NO TO CHOCOLATES. WHY? REASONS WHY NOT TO EAT CHOCOLATES NORMALLY AND EVEN IN BHAKTI LIFE ALSO HERE IS THE SOLUTION BY HIS DIVINE GRACE A.C. BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI SRILA PRABHUPADA THE FOUNDER ACHARYA OF ISKCON SOCIETY
Cocoa beans, the main ingredient in chocolate, are like any other agricultural product and are prone to insect infestation. Insects and other pests attack our crop in the fields, in the storage houses, and even in our homes. It is also not uncommon to find them in the fruits and veggies that we eat. This is a perfectly natural phenomenon. But, of course, this doesn’t mean that we allow the pests to remain in the food that we wish to eat. Incidentally, cocoa beans also undergo the fermentation process during chocolate making.
This happens in carefully controlled conditions, ensuring that hazardous and unwanted substances don’t make their way into the product. The dubious video I mentioned is full of factual errors – typical of fake news communication. It cites that the ‘global authority on food standards’ (the FDA) allows for 4 per cent of the chocolate mass to be composed of cockroaches. The video also goes on to mention that at the rate of 4per cent, a 100g bar of chocolate will contain 16 cockroaches! I would think that cockroaches come in all shapes and sizes, so it’s suspect to mention that exact number of cockroaches.
Secondly, the FDA is not the global authority that controls food standards. It is the body controlling and regulating food standards in the US. In this capacity, the FDA can establish the maximum level of natural or unavoidable defects in foods for human consumption with no presenting health hazard. Every country has its own food regulatory body, and in India, it is the FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India). The standards that chocolate manufacturers must adhere to have been clearly laid out by the FSSAI. One of the specifications is that the ‘material should be free from rancidity or off odour, insect and fungus infestation, filth, adulterants and any harmful or injurious matter’.
The Authority does not allow more than 2 per cent of the insect-damaged beans of the cocoa into a product. Perhaps this piece of info has been convoluted in the fake news video, which now implies that 4 per cent of the product can be the pest itself, cockroaches in this case. It may be true that the effects of climate change and the impending damage to crops, food shortage, and the ever-increasing population on the planet, may force us to eat insects for our survival but this is not happening for now.
Neelanjana Singh
Nutrition Therapist & Wellness Consultant
Source of the above article : https://www.newindianexpress.com/lifestyle/food/2020/feb/26/notes-on-chocolate-2108671.html
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SOLUTION BY HIS DIVINE GRACE A.C. BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI SRILA PRABHUPADA -
WHY NO CHOCOLATE IN KRISHNA BHAKTI ?🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫
Hare Krishna ! Dandvat Pranams to all. This is a story about how Srila Prabhupada instructed his disciple about cocoa contained in chocolates and inspired that disciple to get higher taste. Prabhupada took under his care a small orphan boy. Among other services, this boy was given one service of buying vegetables from the market for Srila Prabhupada’s kitchen. One day (specifically in the summer of year 1973) the boy bought some chocolates (cadbury and 5 star) using the left over money, instead of returning the unused money. He put these chocolates in his bead bag to hide them and came back to the temple. Upon seeing Prabhupada seated in the visitor room (this was around 4 in the afternoon), he quickly offered dandavat pranam, and a few chocolates slipped out of his bead bag and fell onto the floor. Prabhupada waited for the boy to explain himself. Ashamed at being caught stealing money to buy chocolates, the boy quickly unwrapped one chocolate and offered it as a bribe to Prabhupada, expecting less scolding from him. Prabhupada took one bite and frowned. He said “What is this you have given me? Let us read the wrapper to see what it contains.” Prabhupada loudly read out the ingredients at the back of the wrapper and remarked “This contains Cocoa!”; then he looked at the boy and said , “We don’t eat Cocoa. It has caffeine.” (we meaning Vaishnava) Then seeing that the boy was feeling deprived Prabhupada asked “Why you feel like eating this chocolate? What do you like about it?” “It is sweet, that is why I like it,” said the boy. Prabhupada asked the boy to accompany him to the kitchen. The boy washed the vegetables he had bought. Meanwhile, Prabhupada personally made suji halwa, and without even offering it to Krishna, he gave the boy a serving of the halwa. And what is the taste of a spoonful of pure love for Krishna? Probably none of us knows. This boy is a Prabhupada disciple called Haridas. He is one of the oldest Prabhupada disciples at Radha-Rasabihari temple in Juhu. When he was telling me this story tears welled up in his eyes. He said, “That suji halwa was simply magical, how do I explain? Even though it was just made from milk, roasted suji in ghee, and sugar and little water, no one can make anything like tht. I have never tasted anything like that in my whole life after that day. Prabhupada not only ignored my stealing the temple money, he corrected me by telling me that Vaishnavas don’t eat cocoa. Prabhupada is so perfect. He did not even chastise me. He simply gave me higher taste.” This higher taste is actually what we all need. Given this we can give up all attraction for the different sense gratifying objects available in this material world. I am greatly indebted to Srila Prabhupada and Haridasji (director of ITV) for sharing this lovely pastime with me. It is more about Prabhupada’s love and expert way of correcting his disciples than about chocolate. In any case, the conclusion is that Prabhupada has definitely given direct instruction about chocolates containing cocoa. Caffeine is found in cocoa and it comes under the category of intoxicants. Thank you for publishing this article. I am sure it will inspire Vaishnavas worldwide to replace chocolates with sugar sweets which have been offered to Krishna. CHOCOLATE That, as it contains various stimulants like caffeine (contained in coffee), theine (contained in black tea) and theobromine (contained in cacao), chocolate should not be eaten by ISKCON devotees. (GBC Resolution 31, 1993) Coffee, tea and chocolate may not contain sufficient intoxicants to cause a man to stagger but they do affect consciousness and are addictive. These facts have been proven by numerous investigations and confirmed by a Swiss Cadbury chocolate company director. Note from HH Giriraja Swami: In about 1978 a Swiss director of the Cadbury confection company came to Bombay ISKCON temple. He spoke to Amoghalila Prabhu. The man asked, “Do the Hare Krishna devotees
eat chocolate?” Amoghavirya replied no. The man asked why. Amoghavirya replied that chocolate contained an ingredient similar to caffeine which was a mild stimulant. The man agreed and added that it is also addictive. " A compilation by Nitya Kishore DD "🙏🙇