Over the past 4 years, I’ve eaten a lot of dark chocolate, and some of the world’s best bars have made their way through our kitchen. Amedei, Valrhona, Michel Cluizel, El Rey, Domori, Bonnat. The nice thing about chocolate is that it is a very affordable luxury. You can grab yourself the world’s finest bar for less than $20.

Besides tasting great, there’s been a bunch of research over the past couple years showing dark chocolate may actually have some health benefits. For example, studies have shown dark chocolate can lower the “bad” LDL cholesterol, as well as blood pressure in patients with hypertension. And for those interested in improving cognitive performance, please see an earlier Smartkit post about how dark chocolate can boost brain power by improving verbal and visual memory, as well as reaction time. What I haven’t really posted about yet, however, is chocolate’s ability to induce euphoria. All varieties can do it, but I believe dark chocolate does it best. The numerous feel-good chemicals include:

• theobromine (a stimulant)
• anandamide (marijuana like substances)
• phenethylamine (aka PEA, “love drug”)
• caffeine
• and cocoa flavanols

This brings me to CocoaVia, a new chocolate bar put out by the Mars Company that is just starting to become readily available.

What is special about CocoaVia? Out of all the bars I’ve ever eaten, I’m close to concluding it packs the greatest feel-good punch. Thought it was a fluke the first time I tried it, but after having eaten about 10 over the past few weeks, I’m basically convinced.

What is unique about CocoaVia’s composition? The thing that made me want to go out and give it a try is that it’s processed differently from normal chocolate. Under normal manufacturing conditions, almost all of the health-giving plant chemicals (flavanols) are stripped right out. The Mars Company has apparently spent a fortune trying to figure out a way to create chocolate that still retains all these healthy flavanols. In the last year or two, they’ve succeeded, and their top-secret, specially processed flavanol-rich chocolate is called CocoaPro.

And CocoaVia is the world’s first chocolate bar made with CocoaPro.

If any of you chocoholics out there give it a try, I’d be very curious to hear if you notice a similar effect. Please feel free to let me know in the comments section what you think.

A note of caution, though: I personally don’t think CocoaVia tastes very good. Additionally, I’ve noticed a few pimples and zits eating CocoaVia- something that also commonly occurs with other Mars chocolates like Dove and M&M’s.

If you really want all the brain and health benefits that chocolate flavanols confer, you may prefer to go straight to the raw cacao beans. Most health food stores now sell these chopped in the form of cacao nibs.

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Earlier Smartkit posts delved into the strong relationship between your brain’s ability to work well and the health of its blood vessels.

One important determinant of blood vessel health is cholesterol levels, with the LDL subtype of cholesterol being “bad” for your arteries and HDL being “good” (Click here for a Smartkit post on how to naturally raise your HDL).

Came across a couple of interesting studies that show how high-flavanol dark chocolate can lower LDL cholesterol levels. One study was published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association 2006 Nov;106(11):1804-13 (abstract), out of the University of California, Davis. The author’s conclude:

The data suggest that the incorporation of this snack food into a balanced diet represents a practical dietary strategy in the management of serum cholesterol levels.

Another study was published in the journal Hypertension in 2005 Aug;46(2):398-405(abstract). This latter study also found that flavanol-rich dark chocolate also had a powerful ability to lower blood pressure in patients with essential hypertension.

Unfortunately, most chocolate your buy, even dark chocolate, has little in the way of the healthy flavanols after all the processing it goes through. If you’re looking for flavanol-rich chocolate, the best bet is go with cacao nibs. I just bought some the other day, and, while they’re not really that sweet, the taste isn’t all that bad. Cacao nibs are basically little chopped pieces of raw cocoa beans.

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