It's a rocky road to low-fat chocolate

WASHINGTON In laboratories across the United States, scientistsare experimenting with the ingredients of chocolate, hoping to createthe modern-day alchemist's equivalent of gold - chocolate that isboth guilt- and fat-free.

The researchers, spurred by a growing consumer revolt over therisks of a high-fat diet, are toiling to reduce chocolate's fatcontent and perhaps even concoct an entirely fat-free chocolate bar.The lure of guilt-free chocolate stirs considerable passions.

Half the women surveyed in the 1995 book Why Women NeedChocolate (Little, Brown, $19.95 hardcover) said chocolate was moreimportant to them than sex. Yet an unfavorable light on thesometimes …