I think I've found Nirvana, LOL! Man, that must smell wonderfull! Fellas? Let's keep the "I'd lick THAT!" comments to a minumum please, LOL! ;)
Posted on 01/21/2006 3:08:59 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
A full-body chocolate massage may not have the "slimming effects" some salons advertise, but think brownies.
Put on your soft spa voice, and think Willy Wonka.
Think rivers of cocoa and raging endorphins.
The hot new giggle at local spas this season is chocolate: facials, massages, scrubs, pedicures and - the ultimate - chocolate mousse body wraps.
Thursday, dressed in "nothing but chocolate and a towel, banker Jane Dollins said the mousse felt like hot velvet on her back. Candles flickered in the small room at ANiU Salon and Spa in Middleton, one of several area salons offering the new products.
Spa ads claim the chocolate treatments slim the body, but some experts find that hard to swallow. "That's not even close to true unless it's some sort of dehydration effect that would take place if it were chocolate or Crisco," said Susan Nitzke, professor of nutritional sciences at UW-Extension.
Dollins said the treatment left her skin feeling firmer.
But slimmer? "I'll tell you when I put my pants on," Dollins said.
William Comiskey, a naturopath and owner of Keyano Aromatics in upstate New York, said he's selling a ton of his "Chocolate Decadence" treatments this year. "Chocolate is a newer phenomenon in the spa industry," Comiskey said. "It's definitely the hot thing." Still, Comiskey couldn't come up with any scientific evidence that chocolate shrinks fat.
Dr. Brent A. Bauer, director of the Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said there is no evidence.
"Some people claim that you absorb the caffeine/ theobromine (in chocolate) via the skin and this causes weight loss," Bauer said. "(There's) not much chance that you could absorb enough to have any effect, and certainly no one has ever published any study that supports this claim."
At ANiU, a chocolate mousse wrap costs $135 for 60 minutes - "a fat-free chocolate indulgence that actually produces a slimming effect on the body," the salon advertises.
"It's not like you lose 20 pounds," said ANiU marketing director Sue Krukonis. "It helps take out some of the water weight, but it's not an answer to liposuction. If you were trying to fit into a cocktail dress and you wanted to get rid a couple of pounds temporarily, it would do that."
At Deonne Salon and Day Spa on the West Beltline, the chocolate massage costs $75. The salon's Web site makes the same body-slimming claims. And, added aesthetician Lindsay Robb, "the smell would be an anti-depressant."
And at the Ultimate Spa in Monona, special projects director Sheila Bracewell said the chocolate products nourish and exfoliate.
"There are not a lot of things that really have a slimming effect on your body," Bracewell said. "This time of year, you need moisturizing effects more than anything."
In theory, said Dr. Pamela Avery, former director of Meriter Hospital's alternative medicine program, chocolate applied to the skin with other herbs and antioxidants could penetrate the dermis and cause blood vessel dilation and constriction, sort of like the "anti- cellulite creams" available over the counter.
"Does topically applied chocolate produce an actual weight loss?" said Avery, who's now in practice at MindBody Acupuncture on Regent Street.
"It's hard to envision a mechanism of action that could account for that. However, applied with high concentrations of sea salt and other herbs, there could be enough fluid sucked from the outer skin surface and blood flow enhanced to the skin surface as to smooth the appearance of dimpled skin and even temporarily reduce inches."
On Tuesday, Jennifer Baldock of Fitchburg used a gift certificate her husband gave her for Christmas to get wrapped in chocolate. She's not so sure about the slimming part. "But I did feel very soft," she said.
I think I've found Nirvana, LOL! Man, that must smell wonderfull! Fellas? Let's keep the "I'd lick THAT!" comments to a minumum please, LOL! ;)
Can pissant be far behind?
Piece of advice: I have learned from mildly painful experience that chocolate syrup and chest hair don't mix.
It's Ray Nagin's fault!
I figure it's a given. 8>)
She's next.
Interesting approach. Most women would certainly save time if they applied it directly to their thighs.
Alright! It's "Fat Monica!" LOL!
Cheers!
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