Recipes from The Chocolate Puppy Puzzle

Chocolate Chat
Good For What Ails You
JoAnna Carl

Chocolate may well help when you have tummy trouble. Intestinal upsets or even a round of antibiotics can upset the balance of lactase enzymes and bacteria needed to digest milk. This produces a form of lactose intolerance. In one study, researchers at the University of Rhode Island discovered that drinking a cup of milk to which 1½ teaspoons of cocoa had been added helped half of their subjects—all of them lactose intolerant—deal with their problem. (In some people, sadly, chocolate can relax the esophageal sphincter muscle and allow stomach acid to shoot up into the esophagus, resulting in heartburn.)

Chocolate is a good source of minerals, since it contains magnesium, potassium, chromium, and iron, and is commonly used as a sort of home remedy for the blues. This is not just self-indulgence. Chocolate actually contains mood-lifting chemicals such as caffeine and theobromine. Mixed with sugar and fat, it produces chemicals that promote euphoria and calm. Some women use chocolate to fight mild forms of PMS.

Lastly, in animal experiments, some test subjects reduced their intake of alcohol when they were offered a chocolate drink as an alternative. Chocolate martini, anyone?

More about The Chocolate Puppy Puzzle
JoAnna Carl

WITH TASTY CHOCOLATE TRIVIA!

Barks and Bites

The lakeside town of Warner Pier, Michigan, is tickled pinker than a strawberry truffle. Flashy Aubrey Andrews Armstrong has just swept into town, dropping celebrity names and claiming he’s an independent Hollywood producer. For his next project, he says, he’ll make a movie based on a local author’s romance novel—right here on location, as they say in Tinsel Town...

Armstrong makes older ladies blush and giggle like schoolgirls. He’s promised the high school drama club bit parts in the movie. And his constant companion, his chocolate lab, Monte, is quite the charmer. But sensible Lee McKinney, business manager at TenHuis Chocolade, would bet her last chocolate coin that Mr. Armstrong is a doggone phony. Even though it’s the shop’s busy season, Lee’s always up for some sleuthing. But when it leads her to a dead body, dogging the killer could fetch a whole lot of danger...

(A Chocoholic Mystery)
Signet (Mystery), December 2004
240 pages ISBN: 0451213645
Paperback
$5.99

Also by JoAnna Carl:
The Chocolate Frog Frameup, December 2003
The Chocolate Bear Burglary, November 2002
The Chocolate Cat Caper, March 2002
And the Dying is Easy, June 2001

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