Mars: New Candy Is Heart-Healthy

But Dietician Cautions: Beware Of Calories

(CBS)  Chocolate is thought of as a Cupid-helper. Now, one company says a new line of candy bars can help the heart in a different way, promoting heart health.

But a dietician says that, regardless of any potential benefits, the calories in chocolate still need to be counted.

Mars Inc. says its newly-launched "CocoaVia" delivers "real heart-health benefits."

The company says CocoaVia's ingredients are "formulated to promote a healthy heart. … CocoaVia is the only product that contains a patented blend of heart-healthy cocoa flavanols and cholesterol-lowering plant sterols from soy. The new line of snacks also is fortified with calcium and a mix of heart-healthy nutrients including folic acid, vitamins B-6, B-12, C and E."

Still, Elisa Zied, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association cautions (video) that calories are still calories, and need to be watched.

"The company says you have to have about two of these bars a day to get benefits," she told The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith Tuesday. "That will pack on anywhere between 160 and 280 calories to get the full antioxidant and other benefits. That's a lot of calories from candy."

Dark chocolate, Zied says, has twice as much flavanol content as light chocolate, and white chocolate has absolutely no flavanols.

"The problem is," she says, "(chocolate is) a concentrated source of calories. The typical bar has about 230 calories and about 13 grams of fat. And most people can eat much more than a bar in one sitting. You have to really curb the calories when you're talking about chocolate, and emphasize the dark if you want to get any health benefits."

One more thing in chocolate's favor: the fat in it "doesn't contribute to high cholesterol. It has a pretty good fat profile … doesn't have an adverse impact on blood cholesterol."

Again, though, Zied stresses moderation, saying small amounts of chocolate every day should be fine; it's when you eat chocolate in concert with other foods that are loaded with sugar that you start to have a problem with calories adding up.

"I would say that the average person should not have more than 250 more extra calories of candies, deserts, etc. a day, and the average candy bar is about 250 calories," Zied says. "You need to do this for the rest of your life if you want to reap the benefits. I never like to recommend one food to promote a good heart. It's about the overall pattern of your diet."