News

Peg, the cow that may or may not have accompanied Laura Secord across enemy lines in the War of 1812, is going to have a lot less to do.

That's because Canada's oldest and largest chocolate retailer, (named for the young 19th-century war heroine), is finally putting a big push on dark chocolate, the kind that has no dairy in it whatsoever.

By now, the health benefits of dark chocolate is old news. In case you haven't heard, dark chocolate contains cocoa plant phenols that are a potent antioxidant.

Until now, tea was thought to contain the largest source of phenols, but new studies show cocoa has four times that of tea. Like red wine, another of our favourite things, dark chocolate protects against heart disease by reducing the presence of free radicals that damage cells.

Laura Secord is a little behind the herd; since the story broke, manufacturers have been stampeding to cash in on the good news.

Hence, the proliferation of premium chocolate bars at your supermarket checkout counter these days.

"Whether Canadians are eating more dark chocolate for the health benefits or for pure enjoyment, consumption of dark chocolate bars has grown almost 25 per cent," says Camille Krupa, marketing director at Laura Secord. That's a lot of chocolate, but not much milk.

Poor Peg. Even though one of the new Laura Secord 100-gram chocolate bars is premium milk chocolate, the other two - 70 per cent extreme dark cocoa and 85 per cent extreme dark cocoa ($3.49 each) - are aimed at the heart-healthy hordes in search of their daily antioxidant fix.

Never mind. Historians have their doubts that the cow ever existed. Meanwhile, it looks as though Laura Secord is finally back in the business of saving lives.