Chocolate As Health Food?

Candymaker Says Yes, It Has Flavanols; Nutritionists Have Doubts

(CBS/AP)  It is every chocolate lover's wish that their favorite indulgence could somehow be healthy for them. Now, chocolate makers claim they have granted that wish.

Mars Inc., maker of Milky Way, Snickers and M&M's candies, next month plans to launch nationwide a new line of products made with a dark chocolate the company claims has health benefits.

Called CocoaVia, the products are made with a kind of dark chocolate high in flavanols, an antioxidant found in cocoa beans that is thought to have a blood-thinning effect similar to aspirin and may even lower blood pressure. The snacks also are enriched with vitamins and injected with cholesterol-lowering plant sterols from soy.

But researchers are skeptical about using chocolate for its medicinal purposes and experts warn it is no substitute for a healthy diet.

"There's certainly a danger in people thinking that chocolate is a health food," Bonnie Liebman, nutrition director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, told CBS Radio News (audio). "Chocolate is very calorie-dense. Two out of three Americans are already either overweight or obese, so the last thing we need is for people to think they should eat more chocolate ... the evidence just isn't there yet."

Recent research has not established a link between flavanols and a reduced risk of cancer or heart disease, she said.

A paper published by the American Heart Association concluded that chocolate contains chemicals, including flavanols, that have the potential to reduce heart disease. But it added researchers still do not know enough about flavanols to make dietary recommendations.

Other major chocolate companies also have started promoting the flavanol content of their dark chocolates, such as Hershey's Extra Dark, introduced last fall with highlights on its label touting its 60 percent cocoa content and high level of flavanol.

Dark chocolate, which contains more flavanols than regular chocolate, is the fastest growing segment of the $10 billion-a-year chocolate market. Hershey reports that its dark-chocolate sales have grown 11.2 percent over the past four years.

Last year, Hershey Co. acquired San Francisco-based Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker Inc., known for its dark chocolate with high cocoa content and baking products, and plans to add new dark-chocolate products.

Mars created a new division, Mars Nutrition for Health & Well-Being, to distribute CocoaVia. The company has sold the CocoaVia products online for a couple years. They are already available at retail stores in 34 states, selling for nearly $1 a bar.

"Chocolate ... is the number one flavor ingredient in the world," said Jimmy Cass, Mars' vice president of marketing. "Heart health is the No. 1 concern of adults over the age of 40 in every civilized nation. Putting those two together is automatically a big idea."

The industry has been focusing on products that they believe will appeal to aging "baby boomers" — those born during the population surge after World War II. Those products include gourmet chocolates, organic chocolates and "functional" chocolates, such as CocoaVia, that may provide health benefits.

Rachael Brandeis, a national spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association in Atlanta, said dark chocolate is a good source of flavanols, but so are other foods such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains.