The Cocoa Crunch

Chocolate lovers have been kept in the dark, but we’re in the middle of a world cocoa crisis. For a variety of reasons, there’s less farmland for cocoa crops these days, and germplasm collections haven’t been maintained the way they should. But as a recent issue of the journal Diversity points out, scientists from 25 countries, at a workshop hosted by the Cocoa Research Unit at Trinidad’s University of the West Indies, pledged to make conservation of cocoa genetic resources a top priority. “Chocoholics around the world,” said the article, “can now sip their cocoa and munch on their chocolate bars more securely.”

Three-Heart Dining

There are all sorts of restaurant guides on the market, but few worry about calories, cholesterol or fat. New in bookstores is “Healthy Dining in Los Angeles” (Hill & Hill), third in a series which includes “Healthy Dining in Orange County” and “Healthy Dining in San Diego.” Nutritional analyses are done on selected entrees from 85 restaurants--Trattoria Angeli’s snapper in grape leaves, for instance, has a very low sodium count, just 159 milligrams, and gets a low fat rating at 18 grams. The problem, of course, is that L.A.’s best restaurants change their menu with the seasons so you can’t count on listed dishes being available.