What Could Be Better than Renewable Energy from Chocolate?

Posted by geri via GNN

Monday, 15 February 2010

Who knew the same delicious brown bean that creates chocolate can also generate clean green power? Cocoa bean shells left over after the chocolate processing are now being used as biofuel. You might wonder where this is happening. West Africa? Brazil?

Actually, it’s in New Hampshire, which is the home of chocolatier Lindt USA. Lindt recently announced a partnership with Public Service of New Hampshire (PSNH) for the burning of cocoa bean shells to produce electricity from one of the three 50MW boilers at PSNH’s Schiller Station power plant in Portsmouth, near the Lindt factory.

(Continue reading at the Triple Pundit)

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New Evidence that Dark Chocolate Helps Ease Emotional Stress

 

 

Friday, 20 November 2009

The “chocolate cure” for emotional stress is getting new support from a clinical trial published online in the Journal of Proteome Research. It found that eating about an ounce and a half of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduced levels of stress hormones in the bodies of people feeling highly stressed. Everyone’s favorite treat also partially corrected other stress-related biochemical imbalances.   Beneficial substances in dark chocolate may also reduce risk factors for heart disease and other physical conditions, according to growing scientific evidence. Until now, however, there was little evidence from research in humans on exactly how chocolate might ease emotional stress. In the study, scientists identified reductions in stress hormones and other stress-related biochemical changes in volunteers who rated themselves as highly stressed and ate dark chocolate for two weeks. “The study provides strong evidence that a daily consumption of 40 grams [1.4 ounces] during a period of 2 weeks is sufficient to modify the metabolism of healthy human volunteers,” the scientists say. (Read the detailed science report from ACS’ Journal) Share This!