Junk-food science

Food & Drink Weekly, August 15, 2005

Junk-food science: Chocolate maker Mars Inc. says its pipeline is full of healthful products containing compounds from the plant that gives chocolate its unique flavor. Already, the company sells one cocoabar that it claims has "proven heart-health benefits." The Hershey Co., meanwhile, plans to launch an "extra dark" chocolate bar this September that will flaunt its potentially beneficial cocoa content. Smaller chocolatiers tout the same ingredient in a growing portfolio of products.

The CocoaVia Web site claims the bar contains "proven heart-health benefits." But findings from the only human study on CocoaVia haven't appeared in a peer-reviewed journal, and the claim is unrelated to chocolate content. Lalita Kaul, a nutritionist at Howard University Medical School and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, says that chocolate "is a pleasure food with reduced risks" compared to many other common choices.