Free Republic

This recollection was submitted to my Chocolate Chronicle--please submit your favorite chocolate recollections, especially if they may have Jewish connections. Dr. Marcus eats chocolate every day of his life and has reached the amazing age of 103. He remembers: 'I was the youngest of four children, the only boy. I had one Father and four Mothers. We owned one large Swiss chocolate bar. When World War I broke out in 1914, my Father showed us children the bar and said you can look at it, but you cannot eat it until the war is over, then each of you will...

Pyongyang warned that Tokyo would be its primary target if war broke out on the Korean Peninsula, if Japan maintains its "hostile posture." It also threatened a nuclear strike against the island nation if it intercepts any North Korean test missiles. In the comments, carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Friday, Pyongyang lambasted Tokyo's standing orders to shoot down any North Korean missile heading towards Japan, Seoul-based Yonhap news agency reports.

It’s fair to say that Jonathan Grahm, known in some circles as “the chocolate prince,” is big in Japan. Years ago, the Los Angeles-based chocolatier won a competition in Tokyo – the only American in a sea of Old World European expertise – and has been racing to keep up with demand there ever since. His refined truffles are available in department stores across Japan, and this year he had 72 Valentine’s Day popup shops.Chocolatier Jonathan Grahm, president of Compartes“In Japan, they thought American chocolate was M&Ms, and it’s nice to shatter those stereotypes,” says Grahm.While other international projects –...

Because of the importance of the US market, chocolate manufacturers in Switzerland are submitting to Uncle Sam’s intrusion in their factories but they are not happy about it. “The fact that a foreign authority is involved in our Swiss businesses is unseemly,” Daniel Bloch, of Chocolats Camille Bloch, told Handelszeitung, the German-language business journal. The newspaper has discovered that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to inspect 21 chocolate factories and 18 dairies in Switzerland. The move is part of the implementation of America’s Food Safety Modernization Act, new legislation signed into law by President Barack Obama last...

Regularly indulging in chocolate may actually help men decrease their risk of having a stroke, according to a Swedish study. Researchers writing in the journal Neurology found that of more than 37,000 men followed for a decade, those who ate the most chocolate—typically the equivalent of one-third of a cup of chocolate chips—had a 17 per cent lower risk of stroke than men who avoided chocolate. The study is hardly the first to link chocolate to cardiovascular benefits, with several previous ones suggesting that chocolate fans have lower rates of certain risks for heart disease and stroke, like high blood...

A new article in Allure magazine is so sweet it will make you shed tears of joy! Chocolate can protect you from skin cancer! It turns out chocolate doesn’t just provide comfort on a rough day — a new study reports that chocolate helps protect against UV rays. Better yet, this isn’t a matter of slathering chocolate fondue all over your body. The Journal of Nutrition reports that the superfood contains antioxidants epicatechin and catechin that shield skin from the sun- only when you eat it. Women who consumed 326 milligrams of high-flavanol cocoa per day for 12 weeks had...

A Lorain, Ohio, Sunoco is having trouble with a “Reese Cup bandit.” A repeat thief has stolen $400- to $600-worth of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups from the Sunoco in the past several months, according to Lorain Police. He returned to the Oberlin Avenue store at 1 a.m. Tuesday and stole an unknown amount of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and a bag of chips. The clerk working at the Sunoco Tuesday blocked the door but the thief pushed his way past him, police said. The clerk was not injured. Employees of the Sunoco have nicknamed the thief the “Reese Cup bandit.”...

A scientific study likely to stir the souls of chocoholics has suggested that eating dark chocolate every day for 10 years could reduce the likelihood of heart attacks and strokes in some high-risk patients. The researchers, whose work was published in the British Medical Journal on Friday, stressed the protective effects have only been shown for dark chocolate containing at least 60 to 70 percent cocoa - not for milk or white chocolate. This is probably due to higher levels of flavonoids in dark chocolate.

The study found that people who frequently ate chocolate had a lower body mass index (BMI) than people who didn't. The researchers found that the participants - who were an average age of 57 - ate chocolate for an average of twice of week and exercised roughly 3.5 times per week. But the more frequent chocolate-eaters had smaller BMIs, a ratio of height and weight that's used to measure obesity. What explains the effect? Even though chocolate can be loaded with calories, it's full of antioxidants and other ingredients that may promote weight loss, the researchers said.

...Worry no more - Mars, Inc. is going taking that decision out of your hands. The company that produces M&Ms, 3 Musketeers, Snickers and Twix bars has vowed to stop shipping any Mars chocolate products that exceed 250 calories per portion by the end of 2013. Right now a regular Snickers bar has 280 calories and each Twix cookie bar has 130 calories. Mars will most likely stop producing its king-sized candy bars all together since the large Snickers bar weighs in at 510 calories."We have a responsibility to help our consumers and the pets they love lead healthy lives,"...

Ready to say goodbye to a sliver of your Snickers? And how about a slightly slimmer Mars bar? By the end of 2013, chocolate-maker Mars says all of its chocolate bars will be under — or right at — the 250-calorie mark. With all the fixation on our civilization's expanding waistlines, it's not that there are bad foods, just big foods. That means you won't be seeing lower-calorie chocolate or caramel — just less of it. And the company says it wants to be an industry leader, helping its customers enjoy "responsible snacking." It sort of reminds me of beer...

A reading teacher at Blanche Ely High School in Pompano Beach has been accused of screaming at a Haitian student in her class last year, telling him to shut up and calling him a "little chocolate boy" and a "chocolate that nobody wanted." According to the district, Leslie Rainer, 46, of Deerfield Beach, has been spoken to twice before about her remarks to minority students, including an incident in which she allegedly told a student, "I wish they would put you in a boat and send you back where you came from."

MAPLE VALLEY, Wash. -- A local school district has removed chocolate milk from its menus, but students aren't giving up their sugary drink without a fight. The Tahoma School District has spent the past three years reworking its lunch menu to offer students healthier foods. It already did away with canned fruit, and now officials are taking chocolate milk off the menu.

The trust company, under investigation by the Pennsylvania state attorney general's office, manages a $7.5 billion charity. The trust also holds 77 percent of the voting stock in the Hershey Company, including the Hershey Foods Corporation....The precise nature of the investigation has not been disclosed, but local news media have previously questioned the trust's purchase of a financially troubled golf course—for $12 million—that was partially owned by a then-trustee; the building of a $5 million bar and restaurant on the course; and the sale of the chocolate factory in downtown Hershey, PA, to private investors.

Scientists say climate change will eventually claim many victims -– including, according to a new report, chocolate. As temperatures increase and weather trends change, the main growing regions for cocoa could shrink drastically, according to new research from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture. Ghana and the Ivory Coast –- which produce more than half of the global cocoa supply –- could take a major hit by 2050. Currently, the optimal locations to grow the crop are about 330 feet to 820 feet above sea level, with temperatures of about 72 degrees Fahrenheit to 77 degrees. That range will soar...

Chocolate Fondue - 1 and 1/4 cups whole milk - 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract - 2 tablespoons unsalted butter - 4 ounces Ghiradelli 70% Cacao Extra Bittersweet Chocolate baking bar (broken up into pieces) - 4 ounces Ghiradelli Milk Chocolate Baking Bar (also broken up into pieces) Pour the milk, vanilla extract and butter into a saucepan. Heat the saucepan on medium and mix well. When it has begun to slightly boil from the heat, remove from the burner and pour in the bittersweet and milk chocolate bar pieces. Keep stirring until the bars are completely melted and the...

Scientists found that small amounts of dark chocolate may improve health in a similar way to exercise. The researchers focused on the mitochondria, the tiny powerhouses in cells that generate energy, and discovered that a plant compound found in chocolate, called epicatechin, appeared to stimulate the same muscle response as vigorous activity. ''Aerobic exercise, such as running or cycling, is known to increase the number of mitochondria in muscle cells. Our study has found that epicatechin seems to bring about the same response - particularly in the heart and skeletal muscles.''

Chocolate Good for the Heart and Brain Michael O'Riordan   August 29, 2011 (Paris, France) — In a city renowned for its love of food, it is only fitting that researchers presented the results of a new study in Paris, France, showing that chocolate is good for the heart and brain. In a presentation at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) 2011 Congress, British investigators are reporting that individuals who ate the most chocolate had a 37% lower risk of cardiovascular disease and a 29% lower risk of stroke compared with individuals who ate the least amount of chocolate. In the study, published online...

PARIS -- Willy Wonka may have been on to something with that chocolate factory, according to a meta-analysis that suggests chocolate can provide a heart benefit. In six studies, people who ate the most chocolate -- about two pieces of chocolate per week -- had a 37% lower risk of any cardiovascular disease compared with those who ate less (RR 0.63, 95% CI 0.44 to 0.90), according to Oscar Franco, MD, PhD, of the University of Cambridge in England. And in three studies, those who consumed the most had a 29% lower risk of stroke (RR 0.71, 95% CI 0.52...

MONTREAL -- Scientists in Canada said Monday that they plan to study whether eating dark chocolate not only satisfies sweet tooth cravings, but protects against sunburn as well. The study by researchers at Laval University in Quebec will monitor the effects of chocolate consumption on fair-skinned volunteers between the ages of 25 and 65, each of whom will be prevailed upon to eat three squares of chocolate per day for 12 weeks. Earlier research in Germany and Britain has found that chemicals in chocolate called polyphenals increase blood flow close to the skin, which helps protect against ultraviolet rays, but...