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Everything Bad Is Good for You Don’t swear off stress—or chocolate or booze or tanning the natural way—just yet By Jeryl Brunner Turns out, your guilty pleasures (red wine, video games) may not be so guilty after all. And those pesky side effects of being an adult—stress, anyone?—can actually benefit you too. Read on to learn the positives of your seemingly negative habits. http://www.elle.com/Living/Society-Culture/Everything-Bad-Is-Good-for-You

She's sexual, uninhibited — and only 85 calories. The "Fling" is the first new chocolate bar Mars has introduced in more than 20 years. Wrapped in a shiny pink and sliver package, this delicate "chocolate finger" is intended for women. The word "finger" is an industry term for a long, slim confection, Mars spokesman Ryan Bowling says, but with ads that invite you to "Pleasure yourself" in pink lettering, consumers might come to other conclusions. The tag line on the package is "Naughty, but not that naughty." A TV spot starts with what looks like strangers having sex in a...

WASHINGTON – It's not all doom and gloom in the U.S. economy. Some products are bucking the recession and flying off store shelves. Sales of chocolate and running shoes are up. Wine drinkers haven't stopped sipping; they just seem to be choosing cheaper vintages. Gold coins are selling like hot cakes. So are gardening seeds. Tanning products are piling up in shopping carts; maybe more people are finding color in a bottle than from sun-worshipping on a faraway beach. Strong sales of Spam, Dinty Moore stew and chili helped Hormel Foods Corp. post a 6 percent increase in first quarter...

Talk about hot chocolate. A team of British engineers have designed a car that not only runs on a fuel derived from the tasty treat, but is largely constructed from parts derived from vegetables. The steering wheel of the open-cockpit car is constructed from carrot fibers, the foam in the seats from soybeans, and the rear view mirrors and body panels produced from the starch of potatoes. Even the brakes are based on cashew nut shells. The World First Racing team from Warwick University says the car is 95 percent biodegradable and mostly conforms to the regulations of the international...

LONDON – Scientists unveiled on Tuesday what they hope will be one of the world's fastest biofuel vehicles, powered by waste from chocolate factories and made partly from plant fibers. Its makers hope the racer will go 145 mph and give manufacturers ideas about how to build more ecologically friendly vehicles. The car runs on vegetable oils and chocolate waste that has been turned into biofuel. The steering wheel is made out of plant-based fibers derived from carrots and other root vegetables, and the seat is built of flax fibre and soybean oil foam. The body is also made of...

A new inhaler - dubbed Le Whif - has been developed by scientists, allowing chocoholics to enjoy all the treats they can handle for zero calories. The revolutionary gadget means chocolate lovers can indulge their guilty pleasure without putting on weight. The gadget lets users breathe in chocolate to curb cravings and satisfy their sweet tooth. Invented by Harvard professor David Edwards, Le Whif comes in four different flavours: raspberry, mint, mango and plain. He worked with his students at Harvard University to develop the product and said he was inspired by thinking beyond normal ways of eating food and...

A flag is flying at half-staff outside The Hershey Co. plant in Reading where production of York Peppermint Patties is ending. After 23 years in Reading, the chocolate maker is closing the plant Friday and moving production to a new factory it has built in Monterey, Mexico. It will mean the loss of 300 jobs in the southeastern Pennsylvania city. The plant also makes 5th Avenue and Zagnut candy bars and Jolly Rancher hard candies.

READING, Pa.A flag is flying at half-staff outside The Hershey Co. plant in Reading where production of York Peppermint Patties is ending. After 23 years in Reading, the chocolate maker is closing the plant Friday and moving production to a new factory it has built in Monterey, Mexico. It will mean the loss of 300 jobs in the southeastern Pennsylvania city. The plant also makes 5th Avenue and Zagnut candy bars and Jolly Rancher hard candies. The nation's largest candy manufacturer said two years ago the plant would close as part of a wider move by Hershey to eliminate 1,500...

The Hershey Co.'s Reading operation is closing and 252 workers are losing their jobs A bitter taste Reading never claimed to be the sweetest place on earth. But since 1986, this self-appointed "home of the pretzel" has been the proud host of a Hershey Co. plant that cranked out somewhat glitzier snacks such as York Peppermint Patties, 5th Avenue and Zagnut candy bars and Jolly Rancher hard candies. It all ends today. The last Peppermint Pattie line will come to a halt after the final swing shift, workers interviewed this week said. Unlike with much of the grim economic news,...

It's hard to imagine Valentine's Day without chocolate, but some scientists say that it's possible that chocolate could one day be in short supply.

You may be surprised to know how far back chocolate goes -- perhaps 1,000 years in what's now the United States. Evidence of chocolate has been found in northwestern New Mexico's Chaco Canyon, at Pueblo Bonito. The discovery indicates trade was under way between the Chaco Canyon and cacao growers in Central America -- more than 1,000 miles away. Crown says importing the material would have been a major undertaking.

It's chocolatey and creamy and, Holy Cow, Cadbury's Dairy Milk is made from... milk. Just in case you didn't guess from the name, the firm is printing a warning on packs that screams in capitals: "CONTAINS: MILK". The bestseller - whose TV ads boast of "a glass and a half of milk in every bar" - already has milk at the top of its list of ingredients. But now wrappers rolling off the production line at its Bournville factory will also feature the separate warning. It's just in case people who are allergic still don't know. Bars of Dairy Milk...

Cocoa prices on Tuesday surged to a 23-year high as speculative investors poured into the market amid concerns about dwindling supplies from Ivory Coast, by far the worldÂ’s largest producer. Prices for cocoa have risen 70 per cent in the past year, bucking the weakness in overall commodities prices. The drop in sterling has helped push London-based, sterling-denominated cocoa futures higher, but analysts said the main factor was low supplies. The International Cocoa Organisation said in its latest monthly report that cocoa bean arrivals until the end of November at ports in Ivory Coast, which provides almost 40 per cent...

All that chocolate might actually help finish the bumper Christmas crossword over the seasonal period. According to Oxford researchers working with colleagues in Norway, chocolate, wine and tea enhance cognitive performance.

As a software developer who worked with NASA, Timothy Childs built vision-tracking systems for the space shuttle. Now the former techie has a new venture that he says is out of this world: chocolate. As demand for premium chocolate soars, a new crop of high-tech confectioners are changing the industry with Silicon Valley-style innovation, antique German equipment and an obsession with the simple cocoa bean. "The bean totally seduced me," said Childs, co-founder and "chief chocolate officer" of Tcho, a San Fransisco startup seeking to improve the quality of chocolate through scientific experimentation with flavors. "On a molecular level, making...

GERMANY'S churches have criticised a businessman for selling thousands of Jesus chocolates. Frank Oynhausen set up his “Sweet Lord” chocolate Jesus-making business saying he wanted to restore some traditional religious values to Christmas in Germany. “I started thinking about how I could reintroduce traditional religious values into this commercial world,” Mr Oynhausen said . Together with a friend, a local chocolatier, Mr Oynhausen, 54, developed the concept of “Sweet Lord.” Mr Oynhausen said thousands of people have put in orders for the figures wrapped in gold foil.

It may be a bizarre elixir for the current economic crisis, but Bloomberg Television has declared chocolate a potential cure. On Bloomberg’s Nov. 25 “In Focus,” Bloomberg News correspondent Su Keenan showed that cocoa commodities tend to do better in tough economic times “If you’ve been craving chocolate lately, you may not be alone,” Su Keenan said. “Analysts say worries about jobs and the recession have people desiring a little something sweet – like a Hershey’s kiss. And that can boost sales of candy bars and the cocoa that goes into making them.” ...more (w/video)...

I consider myself a loyal conservative. I give money. I make an extra effort for the cause. I try to convert liberals. I argue with them on the major points. Heck, I even answered Rush Limbaugh’s call back in March and voted for Hillary here in the Texas Two-Step! But I’m telling you, they may find me passed out in the bathtub with an empty bottle of Hershey’s chocolate syrup come 7:00 pm, November 4th. My spouse has these two employees with whom we occasionally socialize outside of work. They’re hard-core liberals. They know I’m a conservative. We take every...

Melamine Found in Chocolate Products From China South Korea's food watchdog has detected quantities of melamine, an industrial chemical, in chocolate products from foodstuff giants Nestle SA, Mars Inc. and South Korea's Lotte that were manufactured in China, Yonhap News reported Saturday. The Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) said 2.38 parts per million (ppm) and 1.78 ppm of the toxic substance was discovered in samples of M&M's Milk and Peanut Snickers Fun Size products, respectively, from Mars Korea. A Kit Kat bar from Nestle Korea was also found to contain 2.89 ppm of melamine, the agency said. The...

Cadbury recall all chocolate made in China over fears it may contain contaminated milk British chocolate giant Cadbury today ordered a recall of its Chinese-made products after revealing tests have ‘cast doubt’ on its safety. It is feared the sweets could contain melamine-laced milk, which has been blamed for killing four children in China and making around 50,000 ill. The 11 recalled confectionery items - made at Cadbury's factory in Beijing - are distributed in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Australia. Doubts: 11 products distributed in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Australia were recalled ....Authorities say suppliers might have added melamine, which...