It’s no secret that early Mesoamericans drank cacao. We even know why they drank cacao and who did the drinking. But what many people may not be aware of are the other formats in which cacao was consumed, and for what reasons. Cacao was a much more versatile substance than many people may think, and indeed, it seems that maybe, just maybe, it could have modern day applications as well.

While most Europeans were consulting their apothecaries and pharmacies to treat a myriad of sicknesses, Mesoamericans were grounding cacao. Many a codex (an ancient manuscript) dating to the 16th century documented in great detail the Mesoamerican practice of consuming chocolate to cure several diseases and ailments, ranging from dysentery to the common cold.

Many more manuscripts recorded these practices and were written by Spaniards, mainly because the Spanish shared a similar system of medicine with the Mesoamericans and also because the Spaniards established a strong presence in that area of the continent. These medicinal systems operated on a system of paired terms such as “hot/cold,” “dark/light,” humidity/drought,” and “weakness/strength.” All available foods were likewise separated into these categories and were also used to treat diseases. For example, hot diseases were treated with cold foods/medicines and dry diseases treated with wet foods/medicines. In then follows that health was perceived as balance, whereas illness and disease were imbalance. Balance was influenced by season and varied by age, gender, personality, environment, and diet. Similarly, Spanish medicine and concepts relating to healing were also focused on balance, especially in regards to hot/cold and wet/dry.

Santiago de Valverde Terices wrote an extensive treatise entitled Un Discurso del Chocolate in 1624, and in it he stated:

• Cacao is cold, but chocolate prepared from beans was hot and dry, and therefore suitable to prescribe to sufferers of both cold and wet illnesses.
• Cacao has a remarkable ability to restore the body’s balance. When drunk in large quantities, chocolate is ideal for ailments of the chest, but when consumed in small amounts, chocolate is good for stomach problems.
• Chocolate must always be mixed with other ingredients to be effective.

Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma wrote his treatise on chocolate, Curioso Tratado de la Naturaleza in 1631:

• Chocolate causes conception in women.
• Chocolate made people happy as well as corpulent.
• Chocolate aids in digestion; cures cough of the lungs; dispels plagues of the guts; cures jaundice and inflammations; provokes urine; removes kidney stones; and even expels poison.

At this point, it seems that all one does is simply ground some beans and take a swig from a frothy cup of cacao, right? Wrong. Henry Stubbe wrote a monograph called The Indian Nectar, or, a Discourse Concerning Chocolata in 1662 and provided “recipes” for cacao as medicine. After grinding the cacao into a paste and adding water, a variety of vegetation was necessary to complete the antidote.

• To cure distempers of the liver, cacao was simply mixed water and taken as is.
• In the case of dysentery, said mixture was combined with a guman called olli.
• The flower of the cacao tree was added to chocolate to treat weak and irritable stomachs.
• Vanilla was added to strengthen the brain and womb.
• Achiote was included to toughen the stomach and remove diarrhea.
• And tepeyantli (unknown plant) was put in to treat cough.

Interestingly enough, though, Stubbe recognized cacao’s heart-healthy properties long before modern scientists. He reported:

• “If the butyrous and oily part of the cacao nut is removed…the remainder is a great remedy against inflammations, and particularly [the] fire of St. Anthony [i.e., ergot poisoning.].”
• He further concluded that chocolate mixed with Jamaican pepper induced urine and menstrual flow, expelled excess gas, and perhaps most importantly (and as emphasized previously), strengthened the heart.

Much later in 1685, Sylvester Dufour published his monograph, The Manner of Making of Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate (apparently after the Spanish imported foreign goods).

• Anise seed neutralizes the inherent “coldness” of cacao, and when the two were combined, the mixture was given to those suffering from diseased kidneys, throats, bladders, and wombs.
• Chocolate at night and when mixed with vanilla suspended rheumatoids and inflammation of the lungs, deadens spleen overflow (bile), which in turn prevents vomiting, diarrhea, and dysentery.

Even the venerable Anthelme Brillat-Savarin himself devoted an entire chapter to chocolate’s medicinal uses in his 1825 work, The Physiology of Taste. He claimed that cacao was useful for men whose work require much “brain work” such as lawyers and clergymen, and for those with a weak stomach and disease of the pylorus (that little valve in the stomach responsible for retaining food).

From several perspectives, this research is quite exciting. History and anthropology buffs obviously will revel in this stuff, and even modern scientists may find value (if not, at least interest) in what this research reveals about cacao's restorative properties. If you really think about it, though, today's scientific knowledge corresponds to the early idea that cacao is indeed good for one's health. Now, the next question is: how much does one need?

Apparently, a lot. The most frequently purported reaction to large intakes of cacao was weight gain, which no doubt bears testament to cacao's substantial fat constituency. (An improvment in mood is another common effect, and lastly, an easier visit to the bathroom is a typical response.) So, I wouldn't chug a few mugs of hot chocolate just yet, unless you have a good exercise program. You just might need it.