AN EAST Lancashire businessman believes he can help people to stay healthy – by eating chocolate!

Gary Bailey is the man behind Choco-Vit, a ‘superfood’ packed with antioxidants, vitamins and essential minerals.

The 48-year-old from Longridge claims his combination of dark chocolate and acai berry, which contains 27 calories per piece, can be used as an aid to healthy eating, weight loss and mood enhancement.

He said: “This is a superfood that uses chocolate as a means of delivering all the vitamins, essential minerals and anti-oxidants that health conscious individuals should take every day.

“It’s an entirely new concept in health food, an alternative to supplements and vitamin pills, that will transform healthy eating into a pleasure we will all look forward to.”

The founder of the Health Rack health-food chain, based at Dutton, said research showed people did not take daily vitamins and supplements because they forgot to.

He said: “My daughter Faye said she would never forget her daily supplements if they were made of chocolate.

“I immediately began looking at combining acai berry with dark chocolate and came up with acai choc, the first product in the Choco-Vit range.

“It’s the holy grail of the health food market, a pleasurable way of ensuring your body gets the vitamins and minerals it needs.”

Priced at £14.99 a box, acai choc contains 30 squares of chocolate, each of which contains 500mg of acai berry, a superfruit from Brazil rich in omega three, six and nine, 19 different amino acids, plus vitamins B1, B2, B3, C and E and minerals including potassium, calcium, copper, magnesium and zinc.

The cocoa contains flavonoids, compounds also found in red wine, tea, fruits and vegetables that are thought to act as antioxidants, and phenylethylamine, a mood elevator.

The recommended daily allowance is one to three squares per day.

Katie Smith, a community dietician for East Lancashire Primary Care Trust’s community health services team, said the team would not recommend one product as the answer to weight loss or healthy eating.

She said: “A lot of people want a quick fix and want something convenient, but we recommend getting vitamins and minerals from a wide range of products to have a healthy, balanced diet.

“Acai berries are not more good for you than other fruit and vegetables. It's a bit of a marketing gimmick.”

THE TASTE TEST

Lee Patchett, 29, self-employed bulider, from Rishton: “It’s nice. If something is better for you then of course I’d buy it. But not for £15.”

Lee Close, 34, an electrician, from Blackburn: “It’s just like dark chocolate but you can taste the vitamins in it.”

Sophie Devries, 17, Blackburn College student, from Whalley: “It was nice. I would buy healthier chocolate over normal but wouldn’t pay £15.”

Emma Waddicor, 16, Blackburn college student from Darwen: “I don’t like dark chocolate anyway, so it’s really not for me.”

Alex Briscoe, 17, Blackburn college student from Preston: “It was all right, just normal dark chocolate, but I wouldn’t pay £15 for it.”

Rachel Byrne, 16, Blackburn college student from Ribchester: “They’re quite nice. If I really liked them yeah, I’d probably buy them.”