Sweet News

News story #1 of 3:
Chocolate Milk Diet
Source: Yahoo! Health article from “Men’s Health” magazine, May 13, 2010 by David Zinczenko with Matt Goulding: Zinczenko reports that chocolate milk isn’t just for kids. It’s for anyone who wants a scientific way to lose weight.

Here’s the short story. Researchers in Nebraska determined that while vitamin C helps to build strong bones, it also has the capacity to inhibit the human body from absorbing fat.

Milk is a great source for vitamin C. But you just can’t drain a bottle of milk and lose the pounds. There’s a difference between ingesting calcium in any form and actually be able to absorb it. That’s where Vitamin D comes in.

The human body needs an ample amount of vitamin D to be able to absorb an ample amount of vitamin C. Milk has vitamin D but not much.

People can make a sufficient amount of its own vitamin D just by being exposed to sunlight a few minutes a day but that’s difficult if you stay indoors or work the night shift. Enter chocolate syrup.

Vitamin D, found in fortified chocolate syrup (as well as other foods), greatly helps people to absorb the vitamin C.

Chocolate syrup or cocoa doesn’t have to have vitamin D in order to taste chocolaty. Manufacturers can and sometimes do add, or fortify, vitamin D to the syrup or cocoa to make them more beneficial so check the “Nutritional Facts” label.

The average healthy diet already supplies you with vitamin C but, according to Zinczenko, the optimum added intake of calcium to lose fat is 1000 mg more per day. That translates into three servings of chocolate milk each day. And use 1% instead of whole milk as it saves on the calories.

Bonus #1: An article in The International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism also reports that athletes are able to work out longer and harder with milk than other liquids. Why? Milk, with naturally occurring electrolytes, hydrates better than water or fortified sports drinks.

Bonus point #2: Milk also provides muscle building protein, and your muscles, even at rest, burn more calories than fat.

To summarize: Vitamin C can block the body’s absorption of “excess” fat. Vitamin D helps the body absorb vitamin C. Three servings a day of chocolate milk fortified with vitamin D will not only help drop the weight but improve your workouts.

News story #2 of 3:
The Hershey Company Plans Modernization
Source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review- June 16, 2010: The Hershey Company in Hershey, Pennsylvania announced today that it will soon undertake the “Next Century” construction project designed to modernize one of its West Hershey manufacturing plants built in 1992.

Between $200 and $225 million will be spent to provide a modern manufacturing plant to replace the original production facility built by Milton Hershey over 100 years ago. Another $75 million will be spent to upgrade the current administrative and distribution facilities in Hershey as well as turn the old production plant into offices.

Although 500-600 layoffs will be anticipated during the transition the project will put the company in a more secure financial and competitive standing saving $80 million annually by 2014.

News story #3 of 3:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on Broadway?
Source: New York Theater Guild.com, June 4, 2010 – According to Mike Fleming of Deadline.com the stage version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is headed to London in 2011 and New York’s Broadway in 2012. The original storyline, written by Roald Dahl in 1964, is about a boy named Willie winning a tour of a fantastic chocolate factory run by an equally fantastic character named Willy Wonka.

Sam Mendez is reportedly to be the director with music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman, and book by David Greig. Shaiman and Whittman won a Tony Award with the musical Hairspray and Mendez has a long history of stage direction including Broadway’s The Vertical Hour, and the revivals of Gypsy, the Blue Room, and Cabaret for which he was nominated for his own Tony Award.

Charlie and The Chocolate Factory was twice made into a movie; in 1971 with Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka and again in 2005 with Johnny Depp playing the role.

The story is based on the true-to-life experiences of Dahl as a boy in England where spies were employed by two big-time chocolate companies, Cadbury and Rowntree's, to steal secret chocolate recipes from each other.

Mendez’s production company, Neal Street Productions, has brought the shows, “Enron”, “After Miss Julie” and “Shrek the Musical” to Broadway as well as “Red” which just won the 2010 Tony award for Best Play along with five other Tony’s.

Dessert Recipe
We only feature dessert recipes that we have made, tasted and phenomenally enjoyed. Now it’s your turn.

Paradise Dessert Pizza
Serves 16
Source: The Pampered Chef
Ingredients:
1 package (16 oz) refrigerated sugar cookie dough
8 ounces of vanilla, strawberry or banana low-fat yogurt
8 ounces of crushed pineapple in juice, well drained
¼ cup flaked coconut
2 kiwis, pealed and sliced
2 cups of red grapes, or strawberries, cut in half
11 ounces of mandarin orange segments, well drained
2 tablespoons chopped almonds, unblanched

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Form dough into a ball and place in the center of a cookie pan and form into a 12-inch circle, about ¼ inch thick. Bake 16-18 minutes or until it becomes a light golden brown color. Cool 10 minutes. Carefully loosen from the pan and cool completely.
2. Combine yogurt, pineapple ad coconut. Spread this mixture evenly over the top of the cookie. Arrange the mandarin oranges, kiwi slices and grape halves in a circle over the yogurt mixture.
3. Chop the almonds and sprinkle over the fruit. Slice and serve immediately.

Holiday Feature
Father’s Day – June 20, 2010
Source: history.com, morning-glow.com – Sonora Smart Dodd and her five siblings were raised by their father, William Jackson Smart, a US Civil War veteran, after his wife died in childbirth.

In 1910 Sonora started what would eventually become an international honoring of dads and fatherhood with the first Father’s Day celebration in Spokane, Washington. She chose the month of June to honor her father as that was the month of his birthday.

As the custom grew the holiday was supported by President Calvin Coolidge in 1924. The US Congress officially established Father’s Day in 1956 and ten years later President Lyndon Johnson proclaimed Father’s Day a national holiday. In 1972 President Richard Nixon decreed that it be observed on the third Sunday in June.