New chocolate bar purports to be heart-healthy
The 3-inch-long Winetime Bar — available at Vitamin Shoppes — combines dark chocolate and red wine extract, and is touted as being heart-healthy for all the sweethearts on Valentine’s Day lists.
ResVez Inc. of Rancho Sante Fe., Calif., produces the nutritional snacks. Company president Malcolm Nicholl developed the bar after his wife and business partner, Sandy Nicholl, and a friend were drinking wine one day, and wondered if any nutritional product contained wine. Knowing that wine and dark chocolate in moderation are considered health-enhancing, Malcolm Nicholl researched to see if any nutrition bar combined both.
When he found that none existed, he developed the Winetime bar in two varieties: chocolate raspberry and chocolate, date and almond. The 190-calorie bars are also high in fiber and gluten-free.
At the Mount Laurel Vitamin Shoppe on Nixon Drive, the chocolate-date-and-almond Winetime bar sells for $2.89, although it is on sale through January at four for $10. The bars also are available online atwww.winetimebar.com.
Customers Paul Kiehlmeier of Cherry Hill and Brooke Benoit of Philadelphia both sampled the bar and gave it positive reviews. “It’s pretty good. I actually like it,” said Kiehlmeier, who described the taste as “raspberry dark chocolate.”
Benoit, who works in Mount Laurel, also found the bar tasty. “It’s really good. I would eat them. It’s healthy, too,” she said.
Winetime bars contain resveratrol, a chemical compound found in grapes and wine. It has been widely publicized in recent years after research has shown that it delayed aging, increased cardiovascular health, and offered protection against diabetes in mice, said Dr. David Hsi, chief of cardiology at the Deborah Heart and Lung Center in Pemberton Township.
Resveratrol may be behind what’s called the “French paradox” — that people in France are protected from their high-fat diet because they drink wine, according to the resvez.com website.
The site also states that research on human intake of resveratrol is in its infancy, but that to date it shows the compound lowers blood pressure, keeps the heart healthy, improves elasticity in blood vessels, slows the signs of aging, and inhibits Alzheimer’s disease and cancer, especially prostate cancer. Research has shown that small amounts of dark chocolate and a glass or two of wine daily may be healthful, Hsi said.
For people to get the same benefit from resveratrol that was shown in studies on mice, they would need to drink 60 liters of wine, Hsi said. More than one glass of wine for a woman or two glasses daily for a man can be detrimental to health because of the alcohol content, he said.
While resveratrol is available in pill form, Hsi said “absorption is poor. We do not recommend it.” The Winetime bar, he said, is “an interesting concept, but people should not take a leap of faith” that any nutritional supplement, on its own, will protect their health if they don’t have a well-balanced diet.
Chocolate with Bill & Sheila
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