The short answer: not really. Read on to find out why—and how to get the health benefits a different way! If you’re a dark chocolate lover, hearing that your favorite treat might boost heart health was probably a dream come true—and maybe even sounded a little too good to be true! The reality: while it’s okay to enjoy chocolate in moderation as a treat, It's not the chocolate that’s good for you. It’s actually the bioactives in the cocoa bean that help support healthy blood flow to your heart and brain. So exactly what are these bioactives and how can they benefit cardiovascular health? Before we discuss bioactives, let’s learn about flavonoids. “Flava-who?” you say? Here’s the scoop!
Are There Heart Benefits of Eating Dark Chocolate?
What are Flavonoids & Flavanols?
Flavonoids are a group of compounds made by plants and have a similar shape and chemical structure to one another. Dietary flavonoids are found in the plants we eat, including many fruits and vegetables.
Flavanols (which represent a specific group of bioactives) are a subgroup of the larger flavonoid group. They are found in a variety of plant-based drinks and foods, including tea, berries, apples, and—no surprise here—cocoa.
Benefits of Flavanols for the Cardiovascular System
It’s true: research proves cocoa flavanols have a range of health benefits including favorably impacting cardiovascular health. In fact, our scientists have been studying the effects of cocoa flavanols for more than 20 years, and here’s what the research proves: Cocoa flavanols help support a healthy heart by promoting healthy blood flow.
Flavanols in Chocolate
If the flavanols in cocoa give us the health benefits, why can’t we get ours from a big bar of dark chocolate? As we said earlier, there’s the fat, calories, and carbs that rule out chocolate as a health food. But perhaps the most important: all cocoa isn’t created equal.
Ensuring a high concentration of flavanols—essential for getting the full benefits—starts with high-quality cocoa beans. Then, gentle handling and processing of the beans, from harvesting through final delivery of the product is critical.
Flavanols are very delicate, and easily destroyed during conventional processing. So contrary to popular belief, most chocolate products don’t contain enough cocoa flavanols to give you health benefits. Nor do most of these products typically indicate or guarantee a specific concentration of cocoa flavanol per serving.
Until very recently, measuring the amount of cocoa flavanols people were consuming from their food and drinks was a process of complex estimation. But in the first study of its kind, our researchers—collaborating with experts at the University of Reading, the University of California Davis and the University of Cambridge—have identified and validated the first biomarkers that objectively measure flavanol intake at scale.
If you don’t have a Ph.D. in nutrition or biomedical science, here’s the translation: our researchers have discovered flavanol biomarkers—think of them as searchable chemical hashtags—giving scientists a way to detect the presence of flavanols and precisely measure the amount, in individual diets and across large populations.
How CocoaVia™ Measures Up
Thanks to our proprietary Cocoapro® process, which gently extracts cocoa flavanols from high-quality cocoa beans, we’re able to offer the highest concentration available in a supplement today. In fact, named supplements the Highest Quality, Top Rated Cocoa Flavanol Product after a in independent laboratories across a variety of criteria!We guarantee our capsules and stick packs have 450 mg of high-quality cocoa flavanols per serving that support healthy blood flow for heart health benefits. Whether you prefer the on-the-go convenience of or the delicious taste of our on-the-go , make sure you’re getting at least 450mg of cocoa flavanols in your diet every day. Learn more about cocoa flavanols—from health benefits to detailed scientific research—and see the difference for yourself by trying CocoaVia™ products for 30 days.
