From BBC, the genome of the cacao has been released as a draft. With the help of IBM’s blue gene computer, the draft was completed earlier than expected.

From the Examiner, dark chocolate, about as much as a candy bar a day, can help reduce stress. Or rather reduces the amount of the stress hormones, cortisol and catecholamines.

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Also from Chicago Tribune blogs, basically lists some ways to get the good benefits of chocolate. Which seems to be non-dutched cocoa.

From Fallbrook Village News, At the International Conference on the Status of Plant and Animal Genome Research, a researcher from Mars Inc. proposed sequencing cacao’s genome. And listed threats that endanger the plant. Fungi have severely limited cacao production in South America and could threaten African production if steps are not taken to breed in disease resistance.

From BBC News, it is believed that the flavanols in chocolate are likely being removed during the manufacturing process. So it’s not a good for you as one would hope.

Two articles about healthier chocolates. The first from newkerala.com, Horizon Science has come up with a chocolates that busts the anti-oxidants and lowered bad sugars. The seconds is a press release about adding probiotics to chocolate from Barry Callebaut

A couple of stories: First from Green Options, talks about French fair trade chocolate. Second from Fox News, research should that by resisting chocolate urges, more chocolate is eaten when presented with it.

From Telegraph.co.uk, a study where men who ate chocolate every day and those who did not. Differences in metabolites indicate that there are differences in the microfauna of the two groups. This has me thinking about quorum sensing in bacteria and how this might effect our cells.

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From Physorg.com, Bella Cucina Inc. has recalled their chocolate cookies because some have walnuts. As a connoisseur of chocolate, I find this story to be amusing, but then I have a dark sense of humor.