It seems like almost every day there's another article posted on the health benefits of eating dark chocolate. And new studies on eating chocolate seem to appear almost as often. At least it feels that way. There are an awful lot of studies on chocolate!

So today a couple of articles caught our eye as we were thinking about the chocolate we carry -- Tru Chocolate. One of these talks about "8 Everyday Health Problems You Can Cure with Chocolate." Apparently the writer doesn't know that the word "cure" is reserved for pharmaceutical drugs, and that you're not supposed to claim that natural products can "cure" anything.

We'll let that be their challenge for now. We'll just report on what their article talks about. In regards to libido, they say that chocolate is "abundant with a chemical called phenylethylamine which stimulates your senses and promotes a mood of excitement and well-being." They also rightly point out that, for best results you should stick "to more pure sources of cacao, such as unprocessed cocoa powder or organic dark chocolate."

The other article is about 3 foods that help you to lose weight: grapefruit, lettuce, and dark chocolate. (Which do you think is our favorite?) Now we've always pointed out that, for health benefits, you should eat dark chocolate in moderation -- an ounce a day or less. And Tru Chocolate comes in 8 gram pieces, so you should be able to safely eat 3-4 pieces a day. The article agrees with moderation, pointing out that healthy dark chocolate can curb your desire for other, unhealthy sweets. It also says that it can help to slow the digestive process (so you feel full longer), and that "dark chocolate ... has healthy fats that can help keep metabolism up."

Many articles on dark chocolate will point out that the value of dark chocolate is higher than that of "candy" chocolate because of the high levels of sugar in candy. But no one really talks about sugar-free chocolate, maybe because there aren't many healthy options for sugar-free chocolate. Most use artificial sweeteners. From what we've seen, Tru Chocolate has one of the few truly great ingredient combinations with a natural sweetener that's low on glycemic impact and tastes great.

Looking to promote your health while enjoying the heck out of the process? We hope you'll give Tru Chocolate a try!

In our effort to share healthy, green, and progressive products with our customers and visitors, we've partnered with Plantessence to bring you their exclusive line of essential oils.

Many essential oil companies make nice smelling oils that may or may not be therapeutic. Others make therapeutic oils by correctly processing the oils, and by doing so from the right plants and the right parts of the plants.

But as far as we know, only Plantessence tests their oils with Heart Quest, which assesses heart rate variability. While this is not a mainstream medical test, it is an exciting new technology based on the understanding that the heart does not just go "bump bump," but beats in complex patterns as part of the body's overall communication system.

We'll talk more about this when we develop a lead product page for all of the Plantessence oils we carry, but you can learn about Heart Quest here, and then understand why we're excited to offer you oils that have been shown to have excellent results according to the Heart Quest system.

Again, we're still working on a page that details the oils, but you can find the oils in our store by clicking here. You'll find that we don't just carry bottled oils, but also inhalers, which let you more easily carry the power of essential oils with you. Just inhale a few times deeply and the oil essences can activate responses in the brain.

​Enjoy!

:( Sadly, Plantessence oils are currently not available.