Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Chocolate

  • Antezana Hospital, Spain

    Mojca RamšakLjubljana, Slovenia In the center of the Spanish city of Alcalá de Henares, near Madrid, stands an exceptional institution—the Antezana Hospital, officially Hospital de Nuestra Señora de la Misericordia. It is one of the oldest continuously operating hospitals in Western Europe, having functioned for more than five centuries. Today, it houses a nursing home…

  • Control of blood

    E.C. SparyUnited Kingdom Blood, that vivid liquid within our bodies, has an attraction for human cultures that is apparent from at least the time of the Maya civilization. If many in the West know of chocolate’s origins in pre-Columbian practices, few are aware that the original drink was composed to resemble fresh blood: liquid, nourishing,…

  • The story of chocolate

    Merve BerberAnkara, Turkey Chocolatl, meaning “bitter water,” was the earliest form of chocolate. It was a beverage that contained the seed of the cocoa tree (Theobroma cacao) and was consumed by the pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations of the Olmec, Mayan, and Aztec during sacrificial rituals to the gods and for medicinal use.1 The bitter seed kernels…