Why the percent of cocoa/cacao is not a reliable measure of health benefits.

Despite the popular suggestion that higher percent cocoa/cacao or a "darker" chocolate is an indicator of a greater health benefit (often reported as such by the news media), the true benefits of chocolate come from cocoa flavanols unique plant compounds found in cocoa that are shown to help maintain healthy circulation.†

While traditional fermentation, drying and roasting of beans are all critical steps in the development of chocolate flavor, these processes can easily reduce flavanol content. A chocolate or cocoa product with a high percentage of cocoa/cacao may not retain its cocoa flavanol content due to the losses during processing.

Mars, Incorporated has developed a proprietary process called Cocoapro® in which cocoa beans are carefully handled and processed to preserve their flavanol content. This results in a concentrated flavanol cocoa that is used to make our CocoaVia™ cocoa extract, which can be found in our CocoaVia™ product.