Blood And Chocolate (2007) [UPDATED]
Orphaned, she lives in Bucharest with her aunt Astrid who owns a chocolate store. Astrid is the former mate of the werewolf pack leader Gabriel who, in accordance with pack law, leaves her after seven years for a new mate. Once in a while he returns to sleep with Astrid, who remains painfully in love with him. Vivian is disgusted but Gabriel wants her as his mate, believing her to be the prophesied woman to bring about a "new age of hope" for the pack.
Blood and Chocolate (2007)
The title, Blood and Chocolate, is a metaphor for Vivian's predicament in the film and novel. She must remain loyal to her family heritage, her family "blood", and resist the temptation of a normal human relationship with Aidan, the "chocolate". Her cover up for her true lineage is as a chocolatier who serves gourmet desserts in a small shop while her secret identity is as a werewolf with loyalty to her bloodline, her human identity being chocolate and her secret identity being blood.
The orphan Vivian comes from a bloodline family of werewolves in Romania. As she's promised to the leader of the pack Gabriel, things take an unexpected turn when she falls for the American cartoonist...Read more Aiden, as she becomes torn between her love and her loyalty to her family.
The orphan Vivian comes from a bloodline family of werewolves in Romania. As she's promised to the leader of the pack Gabriel, things take an unexpected turn when she falls for the...Read more American cartoonist Aiden, as she becomes torn between her love and her loyalty to her family.
Researchers say the polyphenols in dark chocolate can help the body form more nitric oxide, a compound that causes blood vessels to dilate and blood to flow more easily. iStockphoto hide caption
Researchers studied patients with peripheral artery disease, or PAD, which affects about 20 percent of adults older than 70 in the U.S. and other Western countries. People who have PAD can have trouble walking and exercising since blood flow to their limbs becomes impaired. Cramping can be a problem, too.
As part of the study, researchers gave half of the 20 participants 40 grams (about 1.5 ounces) of dark chocolate that had at least 85 percent cocoa. The other half of the group received 40 grams of milk chocolate that had less than 30 percent cocoa. The aim was to test whether the dark chocolate could improve those patients' ability to walk on their own on a treadmill.
"After eating the dark chocolate, [the participants] walked an average 11 percent farther," study author Lorenzo Loffredo of Sapienza University of Rome tells The Salt in an email. And yes, he says they were surprised by the findings.
He and his colleagues observed improved blood flow among the participants who ate the dark chocolate. "Conversely, we did not observe effects on blood flow and on walking autonomy in PAD patients after milk chocolate consumption."
As hypertension expert Randy Zusman explained it when I reported on the meditation study, you can think of it as a plumbing issue. "You're pushing the same amount of blood through a bigger pipe," he said. "That's what nitric oxide ... does in response to relaxation." And, it seems, dark chocolate helps that process along.
Arguing that they had no control over the cocoa farms, the chocolate companies drafted a compromise agreement- the Cocoa Protocol (or the Harkin-Engel Protocol)- which was a voluntary protocol to end forced child labor by 2005. They failed to meet this deadline and were given until 2008.
As an important moment for chocolate- July 2005- approached, Tony felt obliged to take further action. This was the deadline for the Cocoa Protocol- when chocolate producers had pledged to deliver slave-free chocolate.
According to Transfair USA, for a typical American chocolate bar (30g, 10% cacao), farmers see about one cent. Since there is more cacao in my dark chocolate, they might see a bit more of the profit, but it is still pennies. Annual salaries for cacao farmers are often only $30 to $100 per year.
A cheap bar is not just inexpensive because there is only 11% cacao content (meaning there is more sugar and less chocolate than darker chocolate bars of 50, 70, even 99%), but because they contain cheaper ingredients, like vanillin for artificial flavoring, and beans without a declared origin.
I'm aware this is hardly the first movie adaptation of a book to disappoint fans, but this happens to be my favorite book so I was/am pretty sore about the movie. It wasn't all bad, and even though it could have been better, it also could have been worse and I AM happy it exists at all. I can look past changing the setting (even though I liked it being set in high school), and maybe some plot points, but Gabriel was nothing like he was described in the book and there was absolutely no chemistry between he and Vivian in the movie. In the book, their chemistry was palpable and so beautiful! He was really so much more unlikable in the movie, and not in the 'love to hate' kind of way like in the book. He was the biggest character disappointment in the movie (even though I love Olivier and think he could play Gabriel well, it was just the script ...and maybe that he didn't have the greatest chemistry w/Agnes anyway). However, the most insulting part (even worse than Vivian working in a chocolate shop) was the ending. Vivian was supposed to end up with Gabriel- NOT Aiden! It wouldn't upset me so much if I didn't love this story and changing the ending pretty much changes everything about the main character Vivian, her story and what it all meant for her to be a werewolf and the meaning of 'Blood and Chocolate' (which is a beautiful title by the way). The movie really didn't do the story justice, yet I can't bring myself to fully hate it. I'm very torn about it, have come to accept it for what it is (but I'll still bitch about it until the day I die). I'll take the movie for what it is; as an alternate angle or alternate ending to the story, but I still highly prefer the ending of the book as it gives a more deep, poignant meaning to the title 'Blood and Chocolate'. In the movie, the ending speaks more to the Chocolate/human element of the title/concept which I find less interesting. Yes, Vivian chose to go with the man that she wanted despite her pack/family, but in the book she choose her innate, primal feelings while in the movie it just felt like she was choosing to rebel.
Flavanoids may have a beneficial effect on blood pressure (BP) and endothelial function. There is however, limited data on this effect during a longer period (8 weeks) and no data on the effect on EPC (endothelial progenitor cells) in healthy subjects.
Baseline characteristics were comparable between both groups. There was a decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressure over time in both groups, however at 8 weeks there was no statistically significant difference between groups (delta SBP -2.17 + /-8.53 mmHg in gr 1 versus -4.06 + /-8.05 mmHg in gr 2, p = 0.4; delta DBP -3.97 + /-7.1 mmHg in gr 1 versus -4.67 + /-5.99 mmHg in gr 2, p = 0.7). 041b061a72