In a Nutshell

Sweet Statistics

Chocolate has been around for about 2,000 years and in that time it has become one of the most popular confections in the world. Chocolate is thought by some to be an aphrodisiac and it has become a tradition to send chocolates to one’s beloved. Following are some chocolate trivia gems and fun facts:

• Chocolate is the best-selling candy by far for Valentine’s Day.

• Cocoa was renamed theobroma, “food of the gods,” by Swedish scientist Carolus Linnaeus (1707–1778).

• The first book completely about chocolate was Cardenas’ Libro en el cual trata del chocolate, published in Mexico in 1609.

• Chocolate contains about 300 different compounds.

• Over 20 million Hershey’s Kisses are produced every day.

• Americans eat 100 pounds of chocolate every second.

• A bar of dark chocolate has less caffeine than a cup of coffee.

Furthermore, according to the Chocolate Manufacturers Association (CMA), the U.S. chocolate industry is a principal consumer of many agricultural products. Here’s the rundown:

• Sugar. The chocolate industry uses 2.5 billion pounds of sugar annually. At 7 million pounds a day, that’s a cost of $667 million a year.

• Milk and milk products. The chocolate industry consumes 749 million pounds a year. That comes in at $461 million.

• Peanuts. The industry uses 326 million pounds of peanuts worth more than $150 million.

Folks at the CMA say that champagne and sparkling wines don’t pair well with milk or dark chocolate. Apparently the acidity in these libations reacts to chocolate and causes a tart taste. The CMA suggests pairing champagne and sparkling wines with white chocolate and red wines with dark chocolate.

Don’t Take a Phisher’s Bait

Internet phishers trick people into giving them confidential information or into doing something they normally wouldn’t or shouldn’t do. One example would be sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be a bank or a credit card company in an attempt to convince them to share private information that will be used for identity theft. The term came from the idea that internet scammers are using e-mail bait to fish for passwords and financial data from the sea of internet users. Hackers frequently replace "f" with "ph," thus the word phishing. The term now includes obtaining user account details and access to all personal and financial data. Here are some ideas for keeping yourself safe from Internet phishing. Kiplinger’s recommends the following:

• Never click on a link in e-mail. Even if it looks official it could be a phisher trying to steal your personal information.

• Make sure you have anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall software. This will prevent phishers from launching keystroke loggers and other harmful programs on your computer.

• Use various passwords. Don’t use the same passwords for every site. If someone hacks a site with poor security they could possibly gain access to your other accounts with the same password.

• Don’t use your Social Security number as a log in.

• If you’re going to throw out an old computer, make sure you overwrite all the files on the hard disk. Otherwise your personal information could get into the wrong hands.