Cyndi Loza

Chocoholics rejoice — one Glen Ellyn resident has created a chocolate so healthy it’s recommended daily.

Glen Ellyn resident Renee Faur has developed a unique recipe for chocolate that she sells through her year-old business, Renee’s Raw Chocolate. Her chocolate is said to be nutritious because it contains raw organic ingredients known for their medicinal value.

In January, Renee’s Raw Chocolate was picked up by the Whole Foods markets in Wheaton and Naperville. It can now be found at both stores including area health food stores and HealthTrack Sports & Wellness, 875 Roosevelt Road.

“There’s a reason that we crave (chocolate) everyday,” said Faur, sitting in her Glen Ellyn office. “It’s not a bad thing. But, usually, the chocolate that we’re eating has so much preservatives in it and when you read my ingredients it’s just food.”

Her chocolates contain eight ingredients: organic raw cacao butter, organic coconut, organic raw honey, organic goji berries, organic raw cacao powder, organic mesquite powder, organic maca powder and sea salt.

“I just want people to feel good without having that crash,” said Faur, who is also a personal trainer at Ackerman Sports and Fitness Center, 800 St. Charles Road. “… It’s just food. So, if you accidentally eat a lot of it, you’re just feeding your body a lot of good stuff.”

Word of Renee’s chocolates has spread.

Susie Warden said simply that at her chiropractic practice, “I kind of fix people and feed them Renee’s chocolate.” Warden and Faur partner up for area workshops on health and nutrition.

Treating patients at Advanced Healthcare Associates can involve a basic routine of supplements, more water, cutting high fructose corn syrup and eating Renee’s chocolates.

“That product itself is going to help people get better as it’s going to substitute the other junkie sweet stuff,” Warden said.

Within a week or two of following Warden’s regime, she said her patients are usually “whistling Dixie.”

Renee’s chocolates are about $16 per box, but Warden said they are worth every penny and more.

“It’s cheaper to take care of yourself now because a heart surgery, liver transplant or (dealing with) diabetes is a heck of a lot more expensive,” Warden said.

Warden isn’t the only person that recommends the chocolate. Others such as Keith Line, editor of Natural Food List, also enjoy it.

“I stumbled upon Renee’s chocolate at Whole Foods in Naperville, where she was doing a demonstration. As editor of the Natural Food List, I try to keep an eye out for new morsels that our fans might like,” Line said in an e-mail to the Glen Ellyn News. “Even though I’ve tasted a lot of raw chocolate that was awful, I just had a feeling that I should try Renee’s. Was I ever surprised — it was fantastic! If I wasn’t told that it was raw, I never would have guessed it.”

Though Faur may seem like a healthy, fit, female version of Willy Wonka, finding serenity with food and exercise has not come easy for her. On the contrary, she explains it’s been a lifelong battle.

“My whole life has always been about healing my body and feeling better because my whole life I suffered from severe fatigue and depression and insomnia,” Faur said. “So, through exercise, weight lifting in-particular and eating the right foods, I’ve healed myself of all those things.”