The results of a University of Illinois study have demonstrated an effective way to lower cholesterol levels – by eating chocolate bars.

At first sight chocolate has nothing to do with healthy heart, low blood pressure and low levels of cholesterol, but a dream comes true.

The earliest known use of cacao––the source of our modern day chocolate––has been pushed back more than 500 years, to somewhere between 1400 and 1100 B.C.E., thanks to new chemical analyses of residues extracted from pottery excavated at an archaeological site at Puerto Escondido in Honduras

For the first time, scientists have linked the all-too-human preference for a food — chocolate — to a specific, chemical signature that may be programmed into the metabolic system and is detectable by laboratory tests. The signature reads ‘chocolate lover’ in some people and indifference to the popular sweet in others, the researchers say.

A small study links the type of bacteria living in people's digestive system to a desire for chocolate. Everyone has a vast community of microbes in their guts. But people who crave daily chocolate show signs of having different colonies of bacteria than people who are immune to chocolate's allure.

Researchers in California are reporting development of a fast, inexpensive test suitable for home use that could help millions of people avoid those ‘out of the blue’ headaches that may follow consumption of certain red wines, cheese, chocolate, and other aged or fermented foods.

Resistance is futile. The more we try to fight off a craving for chocolate, the more our desire for it grows, a British researcher has said. But chocoholics can take heart that such sweets are not addictive despite the fact many people consider themselves as having no control over their urges to eat them, said Peter Rogers, a psychologist at the University of Bristol.

Chocolate is the most widely and frequently craved food, but is it really addictive?

Eating about 30 calories a day of dark chocolate was associated with a lowering of blood pressure, without weight gain or other adverse effects, according to a study in the July 4 issue of JAMA.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has issued the following update on the allergy alert issued earlier concerning undeclared milk protein in evasion no sugar added dark belgian chocolate bar

Summer Chocolate Creations from La Maison du Chocolat

British researchers say they are stunned to discover people get more of a buzz from eating chocolate than passionately kissing their lovers.