[tmbchr]™

M&M’s Company to Make Medicine



Oh boy!

LONDON (Reuters) — Mars, the company that made its fortune satisfying chocolate cravings, announced plans Monday to develop medications that use a component of cocoa to help treat diabetes, strokes and vascular disease.
The privately held U.S. company that produces M&M’s and Mars bars says it hopes to make medications based on flavanols — plant chemicals with health benefits found in cocoa, as well as red wine and green tea.

Mars says it is in talks with large pharmaceutical companies for a licensing or joint venture agreement to reproduce the compounds in cocoa shown to improve blood flow.

“The mounting scientific evidence is extraordinary,” says Dr. Norm Hollenberg, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, which has collaborated with Mars on cocoa research.

“This is a scientific breakthrough that could well lead to a medical breakthrough.”

Yeah, medical breakthrough… I’m sure.







3 Reader Responses

  1. Dan Says:
    July 25th, 2005 at 2:41 pm

    What I want to know is, how come I can’t buy cocoa beans? I’ve looked in every store that would possibly have them, and I’ve never seen them. I’ve looked online and couldn’t find anything until recently, and the best price I’ve seen is $18 a pound. And that’s if it’s in stock, which it almost always isn’t.

    I think it’s a conspiracy. The cocoa cartel conspiracy.

  2. alistair Says:
    July 25th, 2005 at 6:10 pm

    a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down………………………………………

  3. Haeresis Says:
    July 26th, 2005 at 12:22 am

    Dan, look for “cocoa nibs.” Fair trade should go about twelve bucks a pound, about ten for the slave type. ;-)



SURROUND YOURSELF WITH STRENGTH.