Chocolate news just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it?
Science Daily had an article up a few weeks ago about the brain benefits of not only chocolate but wine and tea as well.
The dynamic trio apparently helps with cognitive performance: in a test with 2,031 elderly people between the ages of 70-74, the ones who ate the chocolate, tea and wine scored higher in a battery of cognitive tests than those who didn’t.
The reasoning behind the boost in brain function is still being studied (isn’t it always?), but it’s theorized that because cocoa, tea and red wine contain polyphenols — …read more

I am so amused by this story: The Oreo – an American treat staple since 1912 – has just this month been launched in Great Britain, and some Brits don’t know what to make of it!
Apparently it’s too sweet, doesn’t hold up well in tea (most Brits have never seen a biscuit [cookie] dipped in milk before!), the cream filling is too toothpasty, and the color of the cookie is too dark.
In fact, the tea dipping is such an important part of biscuit enjoyment that one British author says:
“Our love of tea-dipping has influenced the selection of flour …read more

I was reading this month’s Family Circle magazine and found a blurb about chocolate in the health section, titled “Be Sweet to Your Heart:”
“Tea and chocolate have been touted as heart smart, but you’re better off reaching for the latter, reveals a new review. “Cocoa causes systolic and diastolic blood pressure to drop about 5 and 3 points, respectively, while tea doesn’t appear to have much of an effect,” says study author Dirk Taubert, M.D., Ph.D., of the University Hospital of Cologne in Germany.”
~ Family Circle Magazine, August 2007

This is fine by me as I’d much rather reach for some …read more