Chocolate Better Than Viagra?

At first glance, an AFP report on an African country's food and drug agency touting chocolate's "curative" properties, seems like a throwaway funny story, but it's not. Nigeria's federal agency is making the claims that chocolate can enhance the sex drive by citing a report put out by the national committee for the development of cocoa, basically a lobbying board, and the paper is, at best, a press release, but is probably the ad copy from a new marketing campaign.

I'll ignore the AFP's inherent condescension in dealing with Africa, which comes across very strongly, but instead focus on the lack of critical thinking and the collusion of the government with industry at the expense of people's health. Here's the money quote that ties everything together:

For Akunyili, chocolate is the obvious lover's choice. Viagra, she said, can have unwelcome side effects, but chocolate is all good: it is the best anti-oxidant known and -- beyond its sexual virtues -- can help prevent heart attacks, hypertension and diabetes.

The vice governor, who also happens to head a committee for the promotion of chocolate, is even more enthusiastic about cocoa's curative powers, claiming it can "cure breast cancer, get rid of chronic coughs, and enhance brain power".

To present these kinds of claims from an agency meant to protect the public health does not instill confidence. I find it irresponsible that the AFP does not include any counterclaims in its story, proving the condescension for an "African story." For a continent with a rampant AIDS epidemic, spread even further by folk remedies such as having sex with a virgin, and that chocolate "can cure breast cancer," the press coverage needs to be critical, not farcical.