yoga conjures up images, at least for me, of people sweating in a small wood paneled room, drastically manipulating their bodies in pretzel-like poses searching for inner-peace through the union of the mind and the body.

Healthy living seems to be the over-riding raison d’etre of this ancient art, and those who practice yoga (yogis) are constantly harping on the importance of organic food and and ‘healthy’ lifestyles. Recently all of this has begun to change, pitting yogi against yogi in a fight over what a “healthy diet” consists of. Imagine, if you will, lying on a comfy mat in matching sweat pants and jacket you just bought at a yoga boutique on Park Ave, eyes closed, wholly relaxed with your mind cleared, while delicately nibbling on a chocolate truffle. Sounds like heaven!

The NY Times latest piece in their ‘Dining & Wine’ section exposes a new practice amongst yogis: foodie yoga.

This practice combines both the body, the mind, and the stomach in one explosion of strenuous exercise and gastrological over-indulgence. The Times piece uses one yoga studio on Madison Ave that serves a three coarse pasta meal (including wine!) directly after 1 hour of exercise as an example of this relatively new trend. Not only are yoga studios beginning to serve meals after classes or even during but studio/fine dinning restaurants are opening up like Ubuntu, which opened in 2007 in Napa California. But never mind all the food and wine combos, bring on what we all want: chocolate. I’ve never done yoga classes in my entire life, in fact the idea or contorting my body that way makes me think unholy thoughts like those are the kind of moves one performs with company after a long night of drinking.

But my attitude has changed, maybe the chocolate is an incentive to get people in the doors of the studio, or maybe chocolate really does have some wondrous power that is only complemented by the rigors of a yogic exercise. A study led by Swiss scientists (you can be your own judge as to the validity of the study which was conducted at the Nestle Research Switzerland) claims that eating 40g of dark chocolate everyday reduces your stress levels.

So then, yoga + chocolate = ultimate relaxation and healthy living, right? I know red wine has a million health benefits (or at least Carlo Rossi might want you think that) so why not dark chocolate? Plus vegans, a majority of yoga goers, can eat it. So look out for special ‘foodie-yoga’ classes at your local studio and maybe it’s time to crack and go to a yoga class (if you don’t already) and join the newest trend in a several thousand year old practice. But for me I’ll only be at the ones that offer free peanut-butter M&M’s.

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