>At 03:12 PM 3/11/01 -0500, Stacie Tolen wrote:
> >Chocolate is from the cocoa bean, which is a legume.

Caco beans grow on tree trunks of caco trees in football shaped pods.
Since I understood legumes to be leafy, bushy plants with nodes on their
roots that harbor nitrogen-fixing bacteria, I don't think Caco beans are legumes.

I have eaten caco beans, which chocolate is refined from. They are sold
roasted and taste like a dark chocolate-flavored nut. They have a
mild stimulant effect, like eating roasted coffee beans. I have a bag of
caco "nibs", (chopped roasted caco beans), in my kitchen now. I like to
sprinkle small amounts on cherries, yum.

        Theobromine, the active stimulant ingredient in chocolate and
caco beans, is probably not paleo. However, unprocessed caco beans are
probably not as bad for you as even the darkest unsweetened chocolate.

-Katy