American Health Products Co.

The American Health Products Co. was a Syracuse, New York-based distributor of snack products that were sold as health foods, including Neal's Dyspepsia Biscuits and Neal's Instantaneous Vigor Chokolate Compound, both named for E. Virgil Neal, the credited originator of the products. The concern was incorporated at Syracuse in early April 1906 under the directorship of James R. O'Beirne, J. E. Ratchford, O. M. Knox, W. B. Johnson, and W. O. Post; O'Beirne, for his part, was the president of another Neal business, the Force of Life Chemical Co., which was, at the time, being prosecuted by the U.S. government on fraud charges.

Neal's Dyspepsia Biscuits
In the advertising, the biscuits were described as containing paw-paw, pineapple, figs, oranges, celery, "and a few other good things for nerves, stomach and bowels," while Street's Composition of Certain Patent and Proprietary Medicines (1917) reported the biscuits essentially contained starch, dextrin, sugar, ginger, and soda. The fruit biscuits were claimed to be a sure-fire cure for any number of stomach ailments and were advertised for such purpose.

Neal's Instantaneous Vigor Chokolate Compound
Per Street, the chokolates were found to be 64% sugar &mdash; 50% cane sugar and the remaining 14% milk sugar &mdash; which is about the same as any modern chocolate bar.