Chocolate and cocoa, due to their alkaloids, which act as slow poisons to the body, are harmful to the liver and stomach. They are mere excitants and supply no nutritive needs of the body. Theobromine, in chocolate, and cocoa, is chemically related to caffeine and produces the same "physiological" effects when taken. It is a more powerful diuretic (occasions more vigorous action of the kidneys) and has less effect on the central nervous system, but produces death in smaller doses than caffeine. Animal experiments have shown that theine, caffeine and theobromine produce results identical in kind, except that theobromine is fatal in smaller doses.

Coffee, tea, cocoa and chocolate possess no food value, while the unaltered flavors of every one of them is obnoxious to every normal taste. Their bitter, nauseous or insipid tastes necessitate the addition of sugar or other substances before they can be used by the undepraved taste. Neither of them have the slightest excuse for existence as beverages. They act primarily as "stimulants" and secondarily as depressants, or sedatives. Like tobacco, opium, and alcohol they are habit forming, and they are habit forming to exactly the degree in which they are "stimulating." And they are "stimulating" in the degree to which they are poisonous and unfitted for the real needs of the body.