chocolate cake & the importance of eating healthy

This is a chocolate cake. A simple chocolate loaf.
(It’s a chocolate cake w/ chopped pistachios which are optional.)

Is this a healthy cake?

Maybe you’ve already made an educated guess … This isn’t a brand-new post – I published it about 4 years ago. Then I’d like to present a recipe for chocolate cake & some insights – my very own! – about healthy food in general & especially about posts featuring the It-word healthy.

Today … we are still amid our moving activities, unpacking moving boxes or storing them for another week, waiting for new furniture to arrive … etc. So all days seem too short for all the moving work planned – and in the evening we are tired and washed-out. Therefore I rely on existing posts (which I have to update to modern WP standard anyway).

So back to the chocolate cake & my ideas about healthy food …

When roaming food blogs you inevitably stumble across posts w/ recipes proclaiming that whatever was cooked or baken is „healthy“. I always wonder what this means … & suspicion arises.

In my understanding the opposite of „healthy food” is any food that will harm you, make you ill, poison you or even kill you. At the end I’m thinking of food that isn’t any longer ready for being eaten – rotten food. However, my impression is that many a blogger thinks that „healthy food“ is either a philosophical or ethical question, it’s the pursuit of a certain diet or even the religious devotion to the teachings of one of today’s popular food gurus.

(well … I’m not dealing w/ any persistent illnesses concerning the consumption of special food products at this point like lactose intolerance or coeliac disease or … whatever!)

So when regarding the food available for us today what is „healthy” or better: what is called „healthy“?

I tried to summarize some of the main points – concerning food, preparation & diet – what seems to have achieved the gold medal of „healthy“:

• any organic food
• vegetables & fruit out of the region – most likely from a farm just 2 km from home that can be reached via bike (regardless if it’s organic or not!)
• eating like a vegetarian
• eating like a vegan
• any food resp. dishes enriched w/ grains & nuts
• any wholemeal/-grain products
• any superfoods (regardless of origin & if organic)
• eating only raw vegetables & fruit (most beloved product seems to be the green smoothie)
• any products w/o artificial preserving agents
• any processed food – ready to be eaten at once or to be reheated … extremely fat-reduced … extremely sugar reduced …
• any diet w/o fat (or almost no fat)
• any diet w/o carbs (or almost no carbs)
• anything w/o sugar (formerly also valid for caffein, salt, nicotine …).

At first: I think that „healthy“ has got different meanings always according to the people who believe in something – well whatever … if environmentalism, animal welfare, body cleansing, inner glow, slimming, best care for children etc.

Secondly: „Healthy“ is a worn-out attribute nowadays because it’s used too often & in too diverse contexts.

So coming now to my definition of „healthy“:
For me „healthy“ means to use organic food when available, to avoid processed food resp. food w/ lots of artificial preserving agents & to take care when preparing dishes (i. e. avoiding any contamination).
… & it means also not to use any ingredients which beyond shelf-life or rotten in any way …

What about my chocolate cake?

I used organic ingredients like organic flour & organic eggs adding pure olive oil. Sugar is sugar is sugar … (I assume you know!).

In short: For me my chocolate cake is „healthy“!

What to do:

The cake is made by using „my“ recipe for olive oil cake … The olive oil cake approach works also for a chocolate cake.

In short:

• Preheat the oven & line the loaf tin w/ baking parchment – crosswise.
• Mix the flour w/ the dry ingredients including the cocoa powder.
• Mix the eggs, the sugar, the olive oil & the milk.
• Add chopped pistacchios – if you like.
• Whisk everything together & put it in the oven.

I pondered if a chocolate icing could even make it more delicious – I’m sure it is -, but unfortunately I had no chocolate in my pantry. So it’s a simple chocolate cake – for any occasion. (Believe me: it’s best for any coffee break when sitting at your desk working …)

Enjoy!