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Virginia Renfrew
Chocolate for Health?
Chocolate for Health?
by Euan Bear
The
eight-page fax rang a few scam-alert warning bells for me, but with a
headline like "Health by Chocolate," how could any chocoholic
resist at least giving it a read? So far as I know, no calories or fats
can be acquired in just reading.
"Eating Chocolate Now Gives You
Beautiful Skin!" Or so shouted the headline in all caps. And even
though I have never worn make up (other than on stage in high school drama
productions), I had heard of Ecco Bella, a maker and distributor of "cruelty-free"
cosmetics. They were the ones behind chocolate's rehabilitation in the
"beauty" world. I was so skeptical that I went to the web site
and emailed Ecco Bella: "Is this a scam or legitimate? I notice no
info on this product on the Ecco Bella site."
I got an immediate reply, that yes, it was
legitimate, but they weren't quite ready then to get the web pages up
and running (and by the time you read this, the web pages are there).
And then they sent samples.
Health by Chocolate Instant Bliss Beauty
Bar is the product, consisting of "Swiss chocolate with antioxidants
for beautiful skin." The antioxidants are blueberries, which, the
company insists, we'll never taste. The label also lists "cocoa butter
with 0 cholesterol" along with cranberry seed oil, lutein, and lycopene,
among other
ingredients. The bar is organic and contains 55 percent cocoa solids.
And the accompanying literature declares
that cocoa butter is good for the skin - when eaten, not just when applied
topically.
On to the taste test! It's a tough job,
but I consider it just one of the many sacrifices I make for the community
I serve, especially this close to a major chocolate-giving, -getting and
-consuming holiday like Valentine's Day.
The chocolate is organic dark. This is definitely
not Hershey's, not even Hershey's "Special Dark." It's not Cadbury's
or Lindt. It's different from Lake Champlain and Gay Bar options. And
it's nearly as intense as Green & Black's 70 percent cocoa-solid organic
dark.
It has a rounder, more complex, dare I say
"fruitier" taste, and a very good smooth, firm - but not brittle
or harsh - mouthfeel, with a lingering hint of pleasant aftertaste, but
without the gummy sweet coating effect of cheap chocolate. Think of what
the addition of coffee does to good chocolate - it adds aroma and flavors
that linger
and round out the complexity of the already rich chocolate. That's apparently
what the blueberries and other additives do here.
It's definitely good, and certain health
claims have begun to surface about the antioxidant power of chocolate.
Check out the FAQs at www.healthbychocolate.com.
Among the assertions are some amusing ones: "What happens if I go
on a Health By Chocolate binge and eat more than one bar? You'll be in
a very good mood..." "Will
eating Health by Chocolate make me fat? Chocolate doesn't make you fat..."
And my favorite: "I love eating health by chocolate. Could I be a
chocoholic? We hope so! If you love the smooth, luxurious, melt-in-your
mouth feel and the well-rounded sweet taste of fine dark chocolate, than
you are not wrong to crave it! 44% of American women and 17% of men crave
chocolate...."
The FAQs even declare that chocolate has
twice the "oxygen radical absorbance capacity" as prunes, the
"same amount of lavonoids as red wine" and "four times
the polyphenols" as contained in green tea. These claims are being
made for chocolate in general, dark chocolate in particular, and by association
for Health by Chocolate Instant Bliss Beauty Bars.
Well, despite the claims, the web site,
the eco-pedigree (fair-trade certified and "95 percent organic"),
and the nicely complex flavor, I'm not likely to spend the $3.49 suggested
retail for a 50-gram (1.75 ounce) bar. London-based Green & Black's
organic dark (and "Maya Gold," with cinnamon and a hint of orange)
is available at several local outlets for about half that cost - and check
out their web site: greenandblacks.com.
Perhaps the best thing Ecco Bella has done
is alert the chocolate-craving public of something we never knew before:
we have always been on the cutting edge of healthy eating. As Health By
Chocolate puts it, "Dreams do come true."