Chocolate is among the foods that Catholics avoid during the month of Lent in order to unite themselves more closely to Jesus in the desert. Chocolate has had a rich history and has been involved in many religious customs and ritualistic practices.
Pope Innocent refused the Carmelites' request and it was not, in fact, until almost a century later that Pope Pius VI issued a definitive ruling that clerics could drink chocolate (albeit only away from Church premises).
One bishop considered it a blatant abuse, and forbad the practice. Drinking chocolate in church obviously broke the fast laws. (Not to mention that so much pleasure must be pagan!) The ladies, in retaliation, simply took themselves and their entourage to another church.
Jainism. Jainism practices non-violence and has strict rules for the protection of all life. For this reason, they do not eat eggs, fish, meat or poultry.
Fortunately, consuming chocolate was deemed to not be a mortal sin nor break the ecclesiastical fast. Today when one thinks of fasting, one does not consider that chocolate was ever part of the discussion. Although chocolate and the Catholic Church used to be in conflict, they are now in a harmonious relationship.
Because chocolate is a plant-derived food item or ingredient, it is generally considered halal.
We can also rule out foods that had yet to be introduced to the Middle East, such as tea, coffee or sugars derived from sugar beets or cane. Anything indigenous to the New World would have been impossible for Jesus to eat, such as maize corn, pumpkins, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes or chocolate.
The only dietary restrictions specified for Christians in the New Testament are to "abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meat of strangled animals" (Acts 15:29), teachings that the early Church Fathers, such as Clement of Alexandria and Origen, preached for believers to follow.
One of the most distinctive food practices in both Judaism and Islam is the avoidance of pork products. In Judaism, the prohibition has been a way of showing Jewish identity and of challenging it.
Food is prepared as a spiritual exercise with attention to balance, harmony, and delicacy. Conscious eating is followed among all Buddhists. Buddha advised monks to avoid eating 10 kinds of meat for self-respect and protection: humans, elephants, horses, dogs, snakes, lions, tigers, boars and hyenas.
The Chocolate Industry in China
Chinese people are not used to eating chocolate and desserts, as Chinese culture was never about the sweets. Chinese food usually consists of 5 tastes; salty, spicy, sweet, sour and bitter.
Today, the beverage remains a staple in gatherings of most denominations and offshoots of Christianity, except for The Church of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon church. Caffeinated beverages are banned in the Mormon faith due to their “mind altering” effects and “addictive” qualities.
Also, chocolate is high in sugar and saturated fat. It is a high-energy (high calorie) food, and too much can result in excess weight, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Healthier sources of polyphenols include beans, pulses, fruit and vegetables.
Nota bene: Now that the danger to the health of bishops who forbid chocolate at Mass has passed, chocolate does break the Communion fast (canon 919, Code of Canon Law). Gum, being neither a food or drink but a substance intended for chewing and then discarding (like tobacco), does not break the Communion fast.
Ever since the pope first blessed coffee for Catholic consumption, it has been part of the daily ritual of millions of men around the globe.
However, moral theologians have traditionally taught that we should abstain from all animal-derived products (except foods such as gelatin, butter, cheese and eggs, which do not have any meat taste). Fish are a different category of animal.
The respect for cow is part of Hindu belief, and most Hindus avoid meat sourced from cow as cows are treated as a motherly giving animal, considered as another member of the family. Some Hindus who eat non-vegetarian food abstain from eating non-vegetarian food during festivals such as Janmastami.
In the Word of Wisdom, the Lord commands Mormons to abstain from harmful substances. Mormons are taught not to drink any kind of alcohol (see D&C 89:5–7).
All of India's most widely practiced religions have dietary laws and traditions. For example, Hindu texts often praise vegetarianism, and Hindus may also avoid eating beef because cows are traditionally viewed as sacred. Muslim teachings, meanwhile, prohibit pork.
Many dietary regulations borrow heavily from Mosaic Law in forbidding consumption of the blood of any animal, the flesh of swine or of animals that are found dead, animals killed by means other than exsanguination, and food that has been offered or sacrificed to idols.
What did Jesus eat on a typical day? The short answer: a lot of bread. Bread was a staple in the typical daily diet in the first-century Greco-Roman world, supplemented with limited amounts of local fruits and vegetables, oil, and salt. Bread in first-century Galilee would have been made with wheat or barley flour.
"And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Nothing could be clearer. God does not want us to eat meat.
Chocolate's 4,000-year history began in ancient Mesoamerica, present day Mexico. It's here that the first cacao plants were found. The Olmec, one of the earliest civilizations in Latin America, were the first to turn the cacao plant into chocolate. They drank their chocolate during rituals and used it as medicine.
Among the early Judeo-Christian Gnostics the Ebionites held that John the Baptist, James the Just and Jesus were vegetarians. Some religious orders of various Christian Churches practice pescatarianism, including the Benedictines, Franciscans, Trappists, Carthusians and Cistercians.
An ancient Toltec myth identifies Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent god, as planter of the cacao trees in the tropics of southern Mexico. He was called "the god of light, the giver of the drink of the gods, chocolate." Both the Mayas and Aztecs regarded chocolate as a potent aphrodisiac.