SPLASH // 1

SPLASH

ANTWERPDiAmoND of ThE NoRTh

Modern Addictions

iPhone stAte of Mind

iMPressions

Teambuilding, Opening Ceremony, Comittee Work,

Halloween

interview

cAPtAin JAMie -the world is not enough

Classic Culture - Young People

2 \\ SPLASH

Antwerp - Diamond of the North 6

Featured: Antwerp is a city that combines classic cul-ture with a young vibe

content.

Question of the day

iPhone State of Mind - Modern Addicitons

ImpressionsTeambuilding, Opening Ceremony, Com-ittee Work, Halloween. The Press

Eurovillage

Interview with Captain Jamie

Halloween

The End of the Fishing Party

Content2

Message From HQ / Credentials3

10

Daily Splash4

5

8

12

14

9

16

Meet and Greet - The Journos

Freedom vs. Mainstream

18

19

Body Language or How to become a Fortune Teller

Benefits of chocolate

20

22

SPLASH // 3

SPLASH// Message FroM HQ

Lobsters Day five of the Antwerpen International Forum and our session newspaper is still making waves. Issue two of Splash is out, hot from the press, to supply you all with your top up of current world issues, opinionated views, and simple session fun.

In this second issue, our head-lining feature is the beautiful host of our forum – Antwerp. A city brimming with such vibrant culture and awe-some historical value, it was a clear-cut choice as both host of Antwerpen IF 2011 and the Eu-ropean Youth capital of 2011. This port city has obvious ties to industrial fishing which, in this era of increased demand for food around the world, has had sever detrimental effects of fish stocks. We address these consequences of our instance on over-fishing and what the future will hold if we continue as we currently do. Common culture is also topical feature of this issue, with the beneficial effects of chocolate, a view at our over-dependence on the technological era, and our struggle between freedom and com-mon culture acting as major features. An interes-ting interview with your session president and an investigation into how body language influences us on a daily basis offers some intriguing reading. Finally, combining our regular features of Ques-tion of the Day and the Daily Splash with coverage on two starring nights of the forum so far – Euro-village and the Halloween party, we hope to offer a spread of interesting nit-bits to keep you reading til the next edition.

Your Editors,

Max & Rita

Water

Editors in Chief

Rita GrantMax Karpf

Contributing Writers/Photographers

Noura Berrouba / Nicola Solomou Oona Kiiskinen / Gregor Rawert / Monica Mantovani / Fred Fischer / Sigrun Fagerfjäll / Simone Passeri / Waltter Suominen / Louise van

Benschop

The information and opinions con-tainned in SPLASH solely represent the thoughts and opinions of the

contributors and are not endorsed by, or reflect opinions of Europolis

Belgium.

&

4 \\ SPLASH

A-LE-LE-KITA- BONGA. It’s a crisp Autumn Monday morning and the words of the opening game led by one of the chairs, Panayotis, are shaking the buildings around us. Earlier during the Opening Cere-mony, in the University of Antwerp we got to enjoy some high-quality speeches and an inventive use of imagery (caterpillars that is), further inspiration and motivation to prepa-re us all for the upcoming days of committee work. When tackling those tricky to-pics together, it’ll be good to keep in mind a striking comment stated by Stefan Vandenhende, the Pre-sident of EYP Europolis Belgium, in his opening speech: “where the-re is a will there is always a way”.

DailyDaily SplashSplashDaily SplashBy Oona Kiiskinen

Halloween party, perfected by eve-ryone adopting their alternate per-sonas by way of horror costumes. By the time the night drew to a close we had seen some of the most beautiful views in Antwerp. On another note, since living in this beautiful session bubble makes one forget, sometimes, about place and time, we will give you a little session-theme connected sneak peak to the outer world: flooding in some parts of Pakistan has caused a fascinating effect, and many trees have become cocooned with spider webs! How-ever, this bizarre phenomenon has also had a surprisingly positive side effect: the population of mosquitoes in the area has significantly decrea-sed due to getting caught in these webs, thus further reducing the risk of malaria. Every cloud had a silver lining, right?

Talk

Luckily enough, hard work deser-ves a reward: in the evening we were greeted by the splendid eve-ning program. I believe I’m not the only one amazed by the choice of venue: “the Mam-moth” turned out to be an excel-lent choice for the

SPLASH // 5

Having gone through teambuilding and committee work, we have all been up to some pretty hard challenges, some more obvious than others. This leads us to the next question of the day:

What has been your hardest challenge in this forum up till noW?

>> Putting in good work for 6,5 hours by staying focussed for so long. Rory, UK

day.Question

of the

By Frie Fischer and Louise van Benschop

>> Switching from the fun to the serious parts, it’s been hard for my brain. Eva, Germany

>>

Question Time

>> It didn’t feel like a challenge, everything went smoothly and we mana-ged to do what we were supposed to. I feel like I’m in the right place and the right committee and like I’m doing the right thing.Denisa, Albania

>> Getting everyone else quiet so I could talk at some point in committee-work – It didn’t take me long though.

Alexander, UK

>> Staying focused in English and to keep track of my thoughts. Hubert, France

6 \\ SPLASH

By Gregor Rawert

6 \\ SPLASH

Antwerp DiAmoND of ThE NoRTh

>> Antwerp has transgressed from one, if not the, major ports in Europe, to a bustling city, alive with culture, youth and what else but diamonds! Not only is it a beautifully architecture city, but also the 2011 Youth in Action capital, only one of many more reasons why it’s the perfecting setting for the International Forum.

Featured

SPLASH // 7

Standing in the orga-room on the 12th of the Den Bell building, which hosts the partici-pants of this forum during the process of com-mittee work, admiring the awe-inspiring pano-ramic views of this city, I came to realise how many different sides there are to Antwerp.

Looking up north, one can see Antwerp’s har-bour. Former mayor Lode Craebeybeckx once stated: “The people of Antwerp simply need to put their hands in the river Schelde and they are connected to the world.” Just by taking a close look at the statistics of the harbour situated on the Schelde, one comes to realize that there is some truth to this statement. Antwerp is home to the second largest port in Europe and the world’s sixth largest port. Despite the 80km dis-

gest tourist attractions and definitely worth the visit if you’ve the chance!

Antwerp is also well-known for art and architec-ture. Rubens, van Dyck and Jan Brueghel are the most important representatives of Antwerp’s many artists. Their paintings are exhibited in gal-leries all over the world, for example the MOMA in New York City.

But what Antwerp is really famous for can be seen on the way back to our hotel: Diamonds.The old train station is now home to a number of stores, which sell the small stones often re-ferred to as ‘a girl’s best friend’. Antwerp is the epicentre of trade for the world’s diamonds, a business which employs roughly 27,000 people

tance to the Northern Sea, it plays a crucial role in European trade, due to the five capitals situated within a 250km ran-ge. The harbour area is also home to a gigantic chemical industrial park, second only to the one in Houston, Texas (U.S). The dimensions become clear when taking a bird-eye’s perspective pictures of the harbour or – and this is way

better – taking a boat tour. We have only seen a small part of the Europe’s second biggest harbour, but it is safe to say that the industrial parks, the container terminals, the nuclear po-wer plant and all the industry located in the har-bour area are impressive and the tour made it easy to understand why the citizens of Antwerp are proud of their harbour.

Going a bit to the right and closer to the com-mittee work venue one can look at Onze Lieve Vrouwekathedraal, Antwerp’s famous cathed-ral. Built in the 16th century, it is one of the big

in the Antwerp area alone. Four influential diamond-ex-changes are based in Ant-werp, while roughly about 1,600 diamond related shops are located all over the city. 60% of all rough diamonds are traded here, 20% less than only a couple of years ago due to massive competi-tion with Dubai in this sector. All in Antwerp combines classic

cultural elements and still appears to be a city attracting young life. It works perfectly with the session theme as water is a main aspect in Antwerpian life and economy. The fact that Antwerp is the European Youth capital of 2011 comes in handy for an organisation which aims at motivating young Europeans to think and dis-cuss as well as enjoy the European idea.With all these aspects, it is unarguable why Antwerp would make a great and interesting lo-cation for an International Forum and an ideal place to host a session themed on water.

Antwerp combines classic cultural

elements and still attracts young live

8 \\ SPLASH

By Waltter Suominen

EuRovillAgEEAT, ExPERiENcE AND ExPloRE

Lobster

3 countries, 13 stands and over 100 dif-ferent delicacies from all over the countries of EYP - what a night. It all began in the in-ner yard of the old girl school, where many hungry and anxious delegates gathered af-ter a good day of teambuilding. While most of the delegates waited outside for the cultu-ral extravaganza to begin. Few carefully se-lected individuals from each delegation were given the honour to arrange and decorate their own country’s stand with the aid of their wonderful teachers. Finally, when everyone was ready, the cultural exchange began, the overwhelming scent of delicious dishes wel-coming us through the doors of the lobby.

Cultures mingled throughout the night and new and interesting facts were learned. Did you know for example that the Turkish can see into your future after you drink their coffee or that the Cypriots have one of the world’s tastiest sweet wine. The delegates wore dozens of different national and tradi-tional costumes, from an English gentleman to a French fisherman. The amount of effort everyone had seen was mindblowing

However we should proceed to the main part itself: FOOD. Once you started eating you didn’t want to stop. My version of the Eurovillage goes as following: For starters you take some Spanish tortilla and Italian ham. As main course Albanian Byrek, Fin-nish sausages and Austrian smoked meat. While enjoying the meal try the Czech fenole cola. Take a variety of French cheeses be-fore gathering platefuls of different deserts - carrot cake from the UK, candies from Po-land. You can also get creative and try diffe-rent combinations, like the Cypriot souzouko with the Swiss chocolate fondue. Finish it all with a cup of strong Turkish coffee and take a Belgian beer and a waffle to go for the trip back.

As there was a lot of food served, the feeling of fullness was inevitable, luckily the quick-witted delegates from Spain started leading the Macarena (which turned out to be quite the workout), so thank you Spain for helping us continue our tasty trip through EYP.

1

SPLASH // 9

Lobsetring my way around in my grand lobsterpalace in the port of Antwerp on Mon-day night my tranquillity was brutally disturbed. Flashes of light and the pounding of drum ‘n bass made my walls shake and my eardrums creak. As soon as I could, I gathered ten of my best lobsterspies, equipped them with pens and cameras and sent them to the surface. The reports were shocking - zombies, vampires, cats, spider-women, oil sheiks, elephants, unicorns, aliens, ghosts, wolfs, transvestites, devils, sailors, witches, Greek gods and guys in way too tight pants were dancing their ass off, stamping and daggering. With the odour of delicious, Halloween appropriate pumpkin soup still in the air, the music got louder, the hips got looser and the feet faster. Initiated by some impressive moves made by teachers, the win-dows became more and more misty, the floor got more and more covered in sweat drops and remote couches got more and more crowded. Terrified by the unfamiliar creepy appearances of some zombie corpse brides and rotten faces, my lobsterspies got back down into the deep blue. It wasn’t until early in the morning that my fellow lobsters and myself finally got our calm sound waves back, only disrupted by the industry surrounding us.

hAlloWEENPumPkiNs, ZombiEs & WiTchEs

By Monica Mantovani, Noura Berrouba & Louise van Benschop

Lobster

We‘re on a boat

10 \\ SPLASH

Impressions

>> Teambuilding, Opening Ceremony, Comittee Work, Halloween. The Press Team took their cameras everywhere and nothing was missed. This is a first sneak peak on what is about to come. <<

SPLASH // 11

Chair‘s madness

While Danijel offered ‘Free Hugs‘, Panayiotis led ALELE! af-ter the Opening Ceremony. We are looking forward to what they will do next.

12 \\ SPLASH

in 10 countries showed that the stu-dents couldn’t avoid their gadgets for one full day. The study further shows that the students admitted to feel cravings, anxiety attacks and depression when abstaining from the use of technology. Expressions, such as ‘Crackber-ries’, refer to some people’s addic-tion to blackberries and other kinds of personal electronics.The relation-ship between the person and the personal technological item is com-pared to that which a junky has to drugs. Don’t you have a blog or a Hi5, Facebook or Twitter account? No-wadays, having a virtual life has become as normal and necessary

By Monica Mantovani and Noura Berrouba

iPhoNE sTATE of miND -moDERN ADDiciToNs

Ideas

Addictions to drugs, alcohol and tobacco have been known for long. These certain addictions, how-ever, do not apply to the ordinary people. The world is changing, and so are the addictions. Facebook and twit-ter, iphones and blackberries as well as clothes and shoes have proved to be today’s worst dependences. Fretful, confused, anxious, irritable, insecure, restless, crazy, addicted, panicked, jealous, dependent, de-pressed, jittery, paranoid -do you recognize these syndromes? Several studies have shown that technology is addictive. A study made amongst 1,000 university stu-dents, interviewed at 12 campuses

Cable Spaghetti

The Press Team de-finitely could not live

without their laptops, cameras and other

electonic gears.

SPLASH // 13

Laptops, Tablet PCs Mobile

Phones, and cables - a modern

working space

as eating, going to school and slee-ping. Everyone has profiles on soci-al networking websites in which we sign in to regularly to post something new about the last events in life. But with time, computers become ad-dicting. A lot of people prefer sitting in front of a social network site after a hard day of work rather than going out. This unfavourable habit dama-ges our health, eye troubles and sig-nificant weight gain due to a lack of exercise being prime examples.

Shopping is often seen as an en-joyable activity. However, many peo-ple are suffering from omniomania – compulsive shopping. Movies such as ‘Confessions of a shopaholic’ have caused a glamorous view on the behavioral addiction. The reality is not as fancy. Advertisements in-sist that shopping will make us hap-py while politicians are telling us that buying boosts our economy. This has caused an escalated consumerism and led many into the shopping bog. As with other addic-tions, that of shopping follows a ritu-alized pattern of thought concerning the planning of shopping trips and, ultimately, the shopping itself.

So, ask yourself - could you live oneday without Facebook, your phone or your credit card?

tweetpost

updatelocation

14 \\ SPLASH

nce upon a time in the small secluded islandof Ireland a little boy called Jamie was born. One day, Jamie was walking in the fo-rest when he stumbled upon a potato and, hungry as he was, he swallowed it whole. The magic potato made him grow and grow and he did not stop growing till his head be-came massive and his body could no longer carry it. When he could no longer fit on the small island he put on his special Irish boots and went to discover other lands. At least we are pretty sure that’s how it happened. Jamie is our session President. You have probably seen him hanging around and you have definitely heard him, but how much do you really know about him?

Jamie is from Ireland and England but considers himself more a European. After a few poignant moments of realisation in his life time, at 16 as a non-religious English per-son in a Catholic school, as someone who has lived in New Zealand as well as a person who has travelled the world a few times- he understood that a national identity does not define a person. Instead of voiding an identi-ty he calls it transcending one.

His first EYP session was an amazing regional session. He realised his articulacy in debate and discussion which had not been developed prior to that situation. He has a rational understanding of situations which

O

Interview

IntervIew wIth CAptAIn JAmIe

SPLASH // 15

enables him to simplify complex concepts into ways that other people can understand. Jamie has a problem, however, he fails to identify his failings. He struggles to fit through doors as he is very tall and he has a very big head both ‘figuratively and literally’. “As a tall person you are physically above people and this creates a mentality of being greater than others.” He was also a rugby player at school, which he claims contributed massi-vely to his ego. Despite this though, he is aware of this and tries his best to not let it tri-umph -‘I must temper my fevered ego every second of every minute of every hour of eve-ry day lest it be unchained and unleash hell.’ What is a perfect EYP-er according to Ja-

mie? “A perfect EYPer is aware of problems, he deals with them in the most considerate, rational and efficient manner possible. ‘He’s not just a thinker or a feeler but a do-er. I have not met one yet.”

When questioned about his favourite role model, Jamie supplied his answer without hesitation - he considers Thomas Jefferson,the author of the United States Declaration of Independence 1776, as ‘one of the most brilliant minds ever.’ Jamie also looked up to Abraham Lincoln. He was the tallest Presi-dent the United Sta-tes ever had and there-fore a person Jamie could identify himself with. At 17 years old he had an Abe Lincoln beard hence his nickname at a young age.

When faced with the choice between having Beyonce Knowles bum or Angelina Jolie’s lips he chose the latter. However, Ja-mie would rather not be female and says that he is quite good at being a male. If he had a choice between the two in his next life he would choose being a male again.

Do you think about Jamie before you go to sleep? Well, you are not the only one - he does too.

IntervIew wIth CAptAIn JAmIe

16 \\ SPLASH

the end of the fIshIng pArty

Close Up

By Frie Fischer

Stop SignBetter not to be

ignored

BoatWe‘re all in the

same boat

Waterliquid, see-through, wet, salty or fresh, hopefully clean - but most likely not (fish pee in it)

NetSmall-holed fishing nets

are a prime cause of rapid diminishment of

fish stocks.

FishMany of the world‘s fish stocks have decreased

by up to 50%

STOP

SPLASH // 17

Since the end of the oil century everyone knows we will be lacking resources soon if not already. The oil-party is over, but we cannot just go home and live on. It is worse than this and many doubt that there actually is light at the end of the tunnel. But mankind just does not seem to be acting accordingly.

25% of the world’s fisheries are over exploi-ted or even depleted while 52% are fully exploi-ted, according to a study by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation. This means that if we wish for fish stocks to survive into the future we needed to stop catching from those 77% of fisheries immediately. But the key word here seems to be ‘if’.

Humans have always been eating fish but the real hunt only started in the middle of the 20th century. With logistics to distribute them all over the world cheaper and technologies to catch more at once, the modern fishing industry was born. In 2003 scientists found out that the po-pulation of big ocean fish had reduced to 10% of their pre-industrial fishing size. Experts expect the fish population to finally collapse by 2048, but that means the population of fish worldwi-de. In the early 90s, the population of cod fish in Newfoundland, Canada had almost completely depleted and has failed to recover ever since. The Baltic and the Mediterranean Sea are on the edge of a similar catastrophe, the Chinese and Philippine Seas are in dire straits already too, yet regardless, the worldwide four million vessels leave their harbours every day.

So, by not allowing fisheries to recover and to make sure there will be a next generation of tuna, cod, sea bass or salmon we strategically extinct them. But thinking of the food chain, one will recognise that there will be more severe consequences to the issue. Triggering an upset

of the balance of the ecosystem will thus cause a much larger number of bacteria, plankton and jellyfish in the water. And that is not only disgus-ting, but also dangerous when thinking of waterquality and long-term consequences for life on earth.

The issue is a political manifold and tra-cked situation in a triangle of huge multinatio-nal fishing companies on the one hand, nations and unions with different laws and views on the issue but a higher demand for salmon and tuna on the other hand. And not to forget, the non-consuming costal nations around the world that suffer from the unscrupulous methods of modern industrialised fishing, such as by-catch and the disposal of inapplicable fish by throwing them back into the sea, dead. One cannot igno-re the humiliating effect that this waste of food and the lack of respect to the fish must have on Senegalese fishermen that find those in their practically empty nets.

Therefore, by consuming and producing as we currently do, we are not only ending our fish-party, but even more so, endangering and dest-roying the existence of others. We can undoub-tedly stop this, but only time will show if we can still stop the collapse of the marine ecosystem.

18 \\ SPLASH

Journos

ThE Who ...?

3

21

4

5

6

7 8

9

10

1 Greg - Germany: I’ve eaten crocodile meat: tastes like chicken. 2 Fred - Germany: I dislike small children and old people. 3 Louise - The Netherlands: I’ve been in a circus for years. 4 Sigrun - Sweden: I once missed a flight because I was getting a cheese burger. 5 Noura - Sweden: I managed to get from Lyon to Zurich airport without paying a thing, and even got a free breakfast on top of that. 6 Nicola - Cyprus: I’ve never watched a whole movie as I fall asleep every time. 7 Simone - Italy: I can’t pronounce my own name properly. 8 Monica - Italy: I love food more than I love people. 9 Oona - Finland: I have a voice twin. 10 Waltter - Finland: I’ve played the Game for eight years.

By Oona Kiiskinen

SPLASH // 19

Comment

freedom vs

mAInstreAmBy Monica Mantovani

reedom is the word we use when we want to say that we are extraordi-nary, that we have chosen our own be-lief, job, favourite rock band, clothes, house pet, friends, future and so on.In the world we live in, I realized that a sort of “common culture” influences detrimentally our personal inclinations. In fact, everybody has been influenced by this so-called “com-mon culture” in several ways, let me explain.Almost every single human being on this planet has a pair of jeans, has seen a Hol-lywood movie, and knows who Mickey mouse is. Likewise, almost everybody has a television, a computer, and a mo-bile phone. So, I wonder, if we all do the same thing, wear almost the same clothes and watch the same movies, where is the originality, the sense in life, the creativity? We might as well call ourselves ‘sheep’

instead of ‘people’. However, it is not a necessity that we adhere to this definition.“Common culture” is not necessarily a bad thing either. But as I see it, sometimes we forget to appreciate our own values and traditions. We like what is “cool” and what our friends like, what the friends of our friends like, and so on. But what has that to do with freedom? Simply, a free man is someone who is not controlled by anybody and who has control over his own actions. Can we call ourselves free people if we are permanently influenced by others? Is the worldwide mass media, with all its shiny advertisements that lead you towards a materialistic mind-set, related in any-way with the basic concept of freedom? When we get to the root of the problem, we will see just how “brain-washed” we are and we will learn how to be ourselves.

F

20 \\ SPLASH

almistry, tarot cards, crystal balls, signs in coffee-grounds, combine the-se with an old madwoman covered in scarves, necklaces and a dark, steamy room and as little light as possible, and you have created one pretty mysteri-ous situation. Fortune telling is a con-cept almost as old as the human species.

Prophecies and oracles have always had an important role in religion and healing processes. Our idea of fortune telling as unholy and sinful is especially influenced by the ban on fortune telling implemen-ted during the upcoming of Christianity in Europe. The bible strictly forbids for-tune telling and practitioners usually were prosecuted. Fortune tellers promise ad-vice, acquired through signs and images, which put them in contact with so called ‘supernatural powers’. Curiously, the ad-vice and predictions fortune tellers pro-vide are, most of the time, simply the re-sult of effective reading of body language.

Human brains have been evaluated in such a way that aside from percei-ving, observing and processing informati-on, humans are the only species in world who can think, reason, imagine, remem-ber, empathise and choose. Our desire to communicate and our ways to communi-cate have uniquely developed over time. What many people tend to forget is that communication originally is mainly physi-cal. We have developed our speech and created languages, but these skills are first and foremost used as a support of our body language. Therefore body langua-ge is an essential aspect in our ways of communication and in our tries to under-stand the people we live with in this world.

Studying body language is a very good way to learn about things people try to hide behind their words, as well being essen-tial for our understanding. A person that is well practised in studying body language will be better capable of understanding the underlying meaning of a message so-meone is trying to convey, but also bet-ter capable of detecting lies and manipu-

Knowledge

Body LAnguAge or how to BeCome A fortune teLLer

By Louise van Benschop

P

SPLASH // 21

lating. When com-municating, espe-cially when emo-tion is involved, about 55% of the message is con-veyed through body langua-ge. Next to that, 38% is conveyed through the usage of different tones in the voice and only 7% is conveyed through words. Body language is not only about posture, gestures, mimicry and glan-ces, its influence is also broadened by things such as the angle towards the spea-ker, the distance from the speaker, the way one walks and the way one is dressed up. Keeping this in mind it is time to start practicing. Whenever conversing with others, take the chance to focus not only on the words, but to focus on the hand gestures, the placing of the feet and any other thing you would normally not notice

but which would point out much about the speaker’s emotional state. You will see that by that, one can get much more informa-tion about a person and the message one is trying to convey. And the day when you become acquainted with this way of psy-chological knowledge, you will notice many more surprising things about a person they might not even consciously know themsel-ves!

Mimic and Gesture

Body language of-ten says more than one houndred words. It often re-veals emotion whe-re you don‘t want them to be seen

22 \\ SPLASH

600 years ago, the Indian Maya po-pulation had a routine of having one cup of hot chocolate or cacao every morning. To-day, chocolate is high up on the food agenda with cacao being used in ice-cream, candy, drinks, spa treatments and several other pro-ducts. Most people might think that choco-late is bad for the health with its high content of sugar and calories. What they probably do not know and what the Indian Maya populati-on did know is that chocolate has a lot of be-neficial effects on your health. The beneficial effects are both physical and physiological.

Therefore, a moderate amount of dark chocolate has been pro-ved to be beneficial to your health.Common thoughts about chocolate are that it causes bad skin, migraine and high choles-terol. These things have never been scientifi-cally proved. However, there are many health benefits that are attributed to chocolate. It has positive effects on your heart since it in-creases the responsiveness of blood vessels which is useful in preventing heart disea-ses. Chocolate also increases glucose tole-rance. This is helpful in preventing cancer.

Furthermore, chocolate contains flavo-noids, a type of polyphenol antioxidant. The quality and quantity of antioxidants in choco-late is relatively high when compared to other high-antioxidant foods. According to the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, dark chocolate contains about eight times the po-lyphenol antioxidants found in strawberries.Chocolate consumption has long been asso-ciated with enjoyment and pleasure. Eating chocolate makes you happy because it con-tains phenylephylamine - the same hormone that triggers the brain when you fall in love.

Furthermore, a regular consumption of

2

Food

SPLASH // 23

chocolate improves the blood flow to key areas of the brain and boosts the production of endorphins that improve focus and con-centration. As if this wasn’t enough, choco-late is also capable of improving verbal and visual memory as well as enhancing impul-se control and reaction time of your brain. Eating a piece of chocolate or drinking a cup of hot chocolate might give you bad consci-ence. It is not odd that someone would ques-tion the high amount of sugar and fat that could make you gain weight. However, as pro-ved by the Indian Mayas, cacao is a product with many and great benefits. So remember this the next time you drink a cup of hot cho-colate, it is not only good, but also healthy.

BenefIts of ChoCoLAte

By Noura Berrouba

chocolate saves the

day.

24 \\ SPLASH

SPLASHIssue II

                                         

Antwerpen2011: 1st International Forum of EYP-Europolis Belgium Resolution Booklet

Special  thanks  to  the  session  partners: