Sugar 'n' spice and all things nice

Chocolate was fed to a group of young men over several days in a controlled experiment in the United States recently. Scientists were amazed to find the men's cholesterol levels dropped, Nutrition News reported. No one knows why.

Now don't use this as an excuse to gorge yourself on the sublime brown stuff. While the cocoa butter in chocolate may have had a good effect on cholesterol, the other stuff in chocolate - sugar and fat - is already dangerously over-represented in most of our diets.

Earlier this week, this columnist's wife returned from London with the latest fad there - chocolate massage rub. Now one can literally coat oneself with the stuff and claim it is a medical treatment.

With this happy prospect in mind, let us consider the history of delectable sweet things (no, I'm not talking about you, Faye Wong).

The dessert menu for the early hominid was not extensive, consisting of watermelon. It is a safe bet that your neolithic food reviewer would have handed his menu back to the maitre d' every day with the words: 'I think I'll try the watermelon.' On the other side of the Pacific, an interesting discovery was made in 3000 BC. A native American noticed that kernels of corn exploded when heated. She and her tribe had invented popcorn. However, they had to wait 4,900 years before movies, cinemas, paper buckets and fake butter sauce were invented for the full popcorn experience.

But your first serious dessert was developed, of course, by the Chinese, who can be credited with many of the truly important modern inventions. In 2000 BC, Chinese gourmets mixed milk with powdered rice to make a dessertish goo.