Chocolate Can Kill

Killjoys will tell you pointedly that overindulging in chocolate can lead to weight gain, tooth decay and an increased risk of developing heart disease, high cholesterol and Type 2 diabetes. 

Not only that but chocolate can kill too!

The sweet treat is made from cocoa beans, which contain the mild stimulant theobromine. Large amounts of theobromine can be poisonous.

“Theobromine interferes with the nervous system, respiratory system and cardiovascular system (e.g., vasodilation), as well as results in excess urination”, Dr. Naveed Saleh (right) wrote in a blog post "Is It Possible to Overdose on Chocolate" for Psychology Today on October 27, 2020.

“In very high amounts, it can cause increased heart rate, sweating, trembling, loss of appetite, severe headache and drops in blood pressure”, Saleh added. 

Popular Science reports that 1,000 milligrams (mg) per kilogram (kg) of body weight is considered to be a toxic dose of theobromine in humans. 

A person who weighs 150 pounds (about 68 kg) would have to eat around 68,000 mg of theobromine to be poisoned. 

Theobromine amounts vary by chocolate type. You won’t find much in white chocolate – but there’s more in milk chocolate (2.4 mg of theobromine per gram of chocolate), dark chocolate (5.5 mg per gram) and baker’s chocolate (16 mg per gram), per Popular Science. 

The info source crunched the numbers and determined that a 165-pound person could theoretically fatally overdose from eating 711 regular-sized Hershey’s milk chocolate bars, 7,084 Hershey chocolate kisses or 332 standard-sized Hershey’s dark chocolate bars. 

 

Relax, there are no reports of this ever happening.

 

Yesterday, Rangers reduced Celtic's Scottish Premiership lead to 11 points in stunning style as they claimed a 3-0 victory. 

 

The Scottish leaders attempted just four shots, their lowest in a Premiership match this season. Their xG tally was 0.07. [Note: In football, expected goals (xG) is a metric that measures the likelihood of a shot resulting in a goal. It's calculated by assigning a value between 0 and 1 to each shot, with 0 indicating a very low chance of scoring and 1 indicating a certainty of scoring]. 

 

The win ends a barren run of results for the Gers against Celtic, who had only tasted defeat once in 20 derby matches prior to this outcome.

 

Nonetheless, Brendan Rodgers' side have earned such a sizeable lead in the table that they will remain odds-on to retain their title but this defeat, and the manner of it, hurt.

A Spicy Food Challenge That Purportedly Kills

A tortilla chip maker’s decision to pull their extremely spicy product sold as a “One Chip Challenge” from store shelves following the death of a US teen has renewed attention on the popularity – and risks – of similar dares marketed by brands and spread widely online.

 

[Background info: Fourteen-year-old Harris Wolobah from Worcester, Massachusetts died on September 01 and his family has blamed the One Chip Challenge for his untimely death. 

 

The challenge calls for participants to eat an eponymously named chip and then see how long they can go without consuming other food and water. 

 

Police said they were called to the home and found Wolobah “unresponsive and not breathing”. He was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The state medical examiner’s office said it will likely take weeks before Wolobah’s cause of death is determined. But the chip’s manufacturer, Paqui, a Texas-based subsidiary of The Hershey Company, asked retailers to stop selling the product.

 

There have already been reports from around the country of teens who have gotten sick after taking part in the challenge, including three students from a California high school who were sent to a hospital. Paramedics were called to a Minnesota school last year when seven students fell ill after taking part in the challenge]. 

 

Super spicy food challenges have been around for years. From local chili pepper eating contests to restaurant walls of fame for those who finished extra hot dishes, people around the world have been daring each other to eat especially fiery foods, with some experts pointing to the internal rush of competition and risk-taking.

 

But extremely spicy products created and marketed solely for the challenges – and possible Internet fame – is a more recent phenomenon, and teens are particularly exposed to them because of social media, associate professor of psychology at Florida International University Elisa Trucco says.

 

There’s a “glamorization of these challenges on social media”, Trucco said. “You see a lot of ‘likes’ or comments (indicating) social status or popularity from these challenges, but you don’t see a lot of the negative consequences – like the trips to the ER or other injuries”.

Hershey's Embrace Wokeism

Chocolate maker Hershey’s are being “viciously mocked online” for going "woke" in their new commercial, which is claiming to celebrate women! 

The voiceover in the Hershey ad is not that of a biological female – but rather a transgender woman (meaning, a biological male) promoting International Women’s Day!

Hershey's Canadian campaign features trans-rights activist Fae Johnstone. The activist is one of five "women" chosen to be a part of the "HER bar" – which is the Canadian version of Hershey's limited-edition "SHE bar" – in honor of Women's History Month. 

The bar's exclusive Canadian packaging has the face of Johnstone and other activists including Girl Up Québec founder Kélicia Massala, Rita Audi, Naila Moloo, and Autumn Peltier.

As reported by Sky News host Rita Panahi:

 

The company are being recklessly brave! Imagine annoying 99.9% of their customers in order that the 0.1% will buy more of their product! This is ill-advised marketing, if you ask me!

Anyway, cast that aside because today, we celebrate every woman on the planet!