Scientists are still spending time on chocolate, except this time around it’s not to tell us that it’s bad this week, good the next! Apparently they’re analyzing the more than 400 million parts of the cacao bean in an effort to help diminishing crops and possibly make chocolate taste better.
The dissection of the genome began this past Thursday and is expected to last five years. Mars, Inc. is funding the program by more than $10 million which doesn’t seem like much when you learn that fungal diseases cost the farmers approximately $700 million annually.
The research will allow them to …read more

Chocolate as a health food has been big news lately. First came the news that it prevents wrinkles, then that it can reduce the risk of cancer, and finally that chocolate keeps your blood pressure down. But before you rush into a chocolate feeding frenzy in the interest of good health, you should know the details about what you’re eating.
This is where the Chocolate Manufacturer’s Association (CMA) can help. They have come out with a document called Making Sense of % Cacao that includes definitions of many of the terms found on chocolate packaging. You can read the entire document …read more