Healthier sweets let people indulge without guilt

                                      

Beauty Line Chocolat Bars were created by a well-known chocolatier and a Juntendo Univeristy professor.

TOKYO -- Sweets that look and taste like ordinary chocolates and caramels but offer health benefits are catching on in Japan. Developed by doctors and pharmacists, and sold at clinics and pharmacies, these "doctor's sweets" are a way for people with a sweet tooth to indulge without feeling guilty.

Beauty Line Chocolat Bars are priced at 890 yen a box.

     "The bite size is cute. Women like strawberry. It's delicious and the rose flavor adds elegance to it," said pharmacist Maki Sawabe, who treated herself to a Beauty Line Chocolat Bar the first day they came out in early November at the Plaza Ginza drugstore in central Tokyo. The chocolate bars, priced at 890 yen ($7.16) a box, come in green tea, milk and strawberry flavors. They have a light texture and bits of dried fruit and waffle mixed in.

A chocolate a day

They aren't just good, they're good for you. The chocolates have six essential vitamins as well as theanine, an amino acid touted as a stress reliever.

     "I'm fond of sweets, but also interested in beauty care and health. So I like this chocolate," said Kana Kamigane, a 21-year-old part-time worker. Aki Shimizu, 35, said: "I drink supplements regularly, but I think this chocolate tastes better."

     Beauty Line Chocolat Bar was developed by chocolatier Hironobu Tsujiguchi and Hiroyuki Kobayashi, a professor at the Juntendo University Faculty of Medicine. "People tend not to get enough vitamins, so eating fortified sweets is a way to supplement one's nutrition. Furthermore, theanine has a relaxing effect, making the chocolates suitable for a stressful society," Kobayashi said.

     Another player in the healthy sweets game is Dr's Chocolate. These sugar-free chocolates from Belgium are made of natural ingredients. Fumiko Araki of Shin-Ochanomizu Pharmacy in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward said the drugstore sells 150 packs a month. The latest version of the product went on sale in November at around 4,000 pharmacies and other stores around Japan for 540 yen a pack.

Sweet on you

Bar Hoshi Iris serves Dr's Chocolate as a snack.

The chocolate scores low on the glycemic index, which measures how much blood sugar rises after a food is eaten. The GI score of Dr's Chocolate is 60-70% lower than the typical chocolate and nearly the same as vegetables like cabbage," said Motherrenka President Takako Ikeda, whose company imports and sells the product. Low GI foods are believed to help the body burn fat.

     The chocolate offers health benefits but "melts easily in your mouth and is satisfying," said Minoru Suzuki, 71, who was enjoying a morsel along with a cocktail at Bar Hoshi Iris in Ginza in the evening.

     The bar has served the chocolate as a snack for several years. "Rum or Islay malt [whisky] goes well with the richness of the chocolate," said bar owner Yuichi Hoshi.