World’s first medicinal chocolate is here!

GOOD news for chocoholics — your habit could soon become a whole lot more justified. That’s according to the scientists who claim to have developed a chocolate so healthy that it could be taken as medicine.

And the science behind the low-fat treat seems pretty logical too — as the key ingredient in chocolate, cacao, contains all-important antioxidants and minerals, and can also play a role in lowering blood pressure and maintaining ‘good cholesterol’.

Usually most chocolate bars contain at least 70 per cent fat and sugar.However, the new prototype bar, developed by company Kuka Xoco, contains only 35 per cent — meaning that the effects of the cacao will be all the more effective.

Kuka Xoco spokesman Gregory Aharonian said: “Using micrograms of coco plant extract, we can de-bitter unsweetened cacao. This eliminates the need for sugar, sweeteners and much of the fat in chocolate, unleashing the medical benefits of cacao.”

And while the current prototype cuts the fat content by half, the company eventually plan to develop chocolate containing just ten per cent fat and sugar.

IN case you needed reminding of how amazing and terrifying the deep sea can be, here is a ‘sofa shark’.

This extremely rare fish, pro­perly known as a ‘false catshark’, was discovered by researchers from the Scottish Shark Tagging programme near the remote islands of Barra and St Kilda. It gets its rather unkind nickname because of its flabby features, and has been likened to a ‘blob fish’ — which was recently voted the ugliest animal in the world. This sofa shark is only the second of its kind to have been discovered in the last decade. This shark was a female, and she weighed almost 60kg.

“We hadn’t seen one in ten years. It’s not unique to Scotland but it’s certainly interesting to look at — it’s a big and baggy-looking creature. It looks a lot like a soft, discarded sofa when it’s just lying there.”

But that’s nothing — sometimes they can grow up to three metres long, and can weigh around 125kg.