A List to Lift Your Spirits - 45 Ways to Improve Your Life!

A dark chocolate gourmet gift basket can indeed lift your spirits - so can this list!


From the sassy & spirited minds at SmakNews.com is this list of '45 Ways to Improve Your Life'. It was such an enticing list, so we could'nt help but share a few with you right here!

- Smile more, it doesn’t cost you money and will knock years from your face off!



- Stop thinking about your regrets and start living your life.

- Forgive and forget. Holding grudges is like having excess baggage on a flight. You only end up paying hefty fines for them. So just bin those grudges and travel light.

- Enjoy your breakfast, lunch and dinner. Make meal times sacred. Don’t talk business. Everything else is rushed enough; take your time with meals!



- Help a total stranger for no reward.

- Accept shortcomings and work around them.

- Volunteer your services to causes you believe in.

Read the rest of the lovely list here!

The Proof is in the (Dark Chocolate) Pudding!

According to this article on ScienceDaily.com, new research at the Faculty of Life Sciences (LIFE) at the University of Copenhagen reveals that dark chocolate is indeed more satisfying and filling than milk chocolate. Read about the research; sounds like a tasty experiment!

"....To compare the effects of dark and milk chocolate on both appetite and subsequent calorie intake, 16 young and healthy men of normal weight who all liked both dark and milk chocolate took part in a so-called crossover experiment. This meant that they reported for two separate sessions, the first time testing the dark chocolate, and the second time the milk chocolate...."




"...They had all fasted for 12 hours beforehand and were offered 100g of chocolate, which they consumed in the course of 15 minutes. The calorific content was virtually the same for the milk and dark chocolate.
During the following 5 hours, participants were asked to register their appetite every half hour, i.e. their hunger, satiety, craving for special foods and how they liked the chocolate."

What were the results? Very interesting indeed - read the rest of the article here.

Can Chocolate Help Save The Planet?

Ethical, organic dark chocolate...benefits that can save the world.


Here's yet another wonderful podcast from the fabulous NPR - How Chocolate Can Save the Planet! Check out this podcast and article by Joanne Silberner, full of fascinating details. Here's an excerpt from the written article:

"...How could chocolate help with global climate change?

The answer is found in a little piece of paradise, a patch of rainforest in eastern Brazil. Everywhere you look, something is growing. Orchids nestle in the crooks of trees. There are hundreds of shades of green, and the forest is loud with birds and insects.

Photo: Anna Vigran, NPR

Some areas have been thinned out and planted with cacao trees — the source of chocolate. The pods contain the magical beans that Aztecs counted like gold. The cultivated cacao trees grow just a bit higher than a man can reach, and rainforest trees tower over them like something out of Dr. Seuss — some round like lollipops, some flat like a plate.
And here's the climate connection. Rainforest trees and plants store massive amounts of carbon — keeping it from getting into the air as carbon dioxide."

You can read the rest of this wonderfully vivid article here as well as download the podcast.