In Brief: Too Much Garlic, Not Enough Candy and Disney Fruit?

Good news: Garlic can cut cholesterol. Bad news: You need 12 cloves to get the benefit. Also, Hershey and Nestle are seeking larger market share with smaller servings and Disney jumps into the produce business.

Would you trade cholesterol for raging BO?
A study reported this week by WebMD finds that garlic, famous for giving bad breath and foul body odor, may reduce cholesterol. But to have an effect, you'll need to somehow stomach 12 cloves of the stuff. That's the finding from tests on lab rats that were given 500-milligram shots of garlic per day (the equivalent of 12 cloves in a 150-pound person), for four weeks. The garlic also helped fight blood clots.

Candy makers cut portion size, but it's a net gain
At this week's All Candy Expo, Hershey and Nestle launched "stick versions" of their candy bars, reports CNN. Apparently, this is nothing new. Hershey told CNN that, "the company has always had calorie-controlled versions of its candies." Oh, are they referring to those sacks of miniature Mr. Goodbars, Krackles and Hershey's Special Dark? The same bags that, instead of sitting and eating one normal-sized bar, I'll open up and eat about 20 mini-sized bars? I don't call that calorie control, I call it guilt control. Because instead of feeling guilty for eating a whole candy bar, I feel comfortable eating a bunch of seemingly harmless little ones.

Disney Fruit Hits European Grocery Stores
According to the Financial Times (by way of MSNBC), Disney is trying its hand at dealing fruit. Look for satsumas now, and then bananas and apples later. Maybe this is how they expect to make up for losses at the box office. That or, as the Financial Times suggests, they are trying to distance themselves from McDonald's, which they had been partnered with for a decade, and "jump onto the healthy eating bandwagon." Then again, the report does say that existing products in Disney's food portfolio (there are 300 in all) include "pasta, pizza and beef burgers in the shape of Mickey Mouse."