Is Dark Chocolate a Healthy Food?
ForFor more than 25 years, news articles have promoted the health benefits of dark chocolate. After reviewing research in 2008, I wrote about the cardiovascular benefits of cocoa. Studies showed that small amounts of flavanols in cocoa reduce the risk of a heart attack.
People missed the crucial detail about dose.
Studies used 4 grams of cocoa daily. That equals about two Hershey’s Kisses. Readers skipped past this detail and remembered only that dark chocolate was healthy. They grabbed full-sized bars and ate without concern.
The problem runs deeper than portion control. It combines industry-funded research, misleading marketing, and public willingness to believe what they want to hear.
Why This Matters
Over the past 30 years, companies like Barry Callebaut, Hershey’s, Mars, and Nestlé have invested millions in scientific studies on cocoa benefits. Private funding creates a selection problem. Studies showing maximum benefit get published. Studies showing problems do not require release.
When VOX Media analyzed 100 Mars-funded studies, they found 98% reported positive results. Only 2% showed neutral or negative findings. This creates information bias for science and health writers. Articles focus on how cocoa reduces stress and heart attack risk. What goes missing are comparisons between what researchers gave subjects and what people actually eat.
Many studies gave subjects unsweetened cocoa or concentrated extracts, not processed dark chocolate candy bars. No studies compared chocolate’s mood benefits against meditation or other relaxation techniques. No studies gave subjects a chocolate bar daily to test outcomes against people who avoided chocolate. Studies comparing chocolate to other healthy food options are almost entirely absent.
The chocolate-buying public got headlines screaming “7 Proven Health Benefits of Dark Chocolate” and “Why Dark Chocolate is the Healthiest Chocolate.” Companies selling chocolate bars promoted cocoa percentages on labels. Bars became marketed as healthy options. People believed chocolate was guilt-free food.
The reality disappoints. I picked up six typical dark chocolate bars ranging from 70% to 95% cocoa. They average 448 calories each. Sugar content varies wildly, from 2 grams per bar to 24 grams. Eat one bar daily and you will gain nearly a pound per week. That is not a healthy option.
Fat content ranges from 28 to 42 grams per bar. Even bars labeled “extra dark” or “85% cocoa” pack substantial calories and fat because cocoa butter is 70% saturated fat.
Here's what you might consider doing.
Use cocoa powder instead of bars. One tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder contains 10 to 20 calories, 2 grams of fiber, no added sugar, and less than 1 gram of fat. You get the flavanols without excess calories.
Put a tablespoon of natural cocoa powder in your morning coffee. Add a low-calorie sweetener if needed. You create a mocha drink with potential cocoa benefits and none of the sugar and calories found in chocolate bars.
When buying cocoa powder, choose “natural” or “unsweetened” versions. Avoid “Dutch processed” or “processed with alkali” labels. Alkalization destroys most flavanols while making the powder taste smoother.
Reference Links:
In studies, cocoa flavanols have been found to lower blood pressure and arterial stiffness as much as some blood pressure medication. However, doctors didn't know what would happen if people STARTED OUT with low blood pressure.
In this study, they found that when people started out low, the cocoa flavanols didn't lower it any further. That's great news for anyone taking cocoa flavanols, because it can help, without causing someone to crash.
Assessing Variability in Vascular Response to Cocoa With Personal Devices: A Series of Double-Blind Randomized Crossover n-of-1 Trials
Mariam Bapir, Paola Campagnolo, Ana Rodriguez-Mateos, Simon S. Skene and Christian Heiss
Frontiers in Nutrition, Published 13 June 2022 Sec. Nutrition and Metabolism
Click Here for the Study: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2022.886597/full
Flavanol-rich cocoa induces nitric-oxide-dependent vasodilation in healthy humans
Fisher, Naomi DL; Hughes, Meghan; Gerhard-Herman, Marie; Hollenberg, Norman K
Journal of Hypertension, Published 21(12):p 2281-2286, December 2003.
Click Here for the Study: https://doi.org/10.1097/00004872-200312000-00016
Effect of cocoa flavanol supplementation for the prevention of cardiovascular disease events: the COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS) randomized clinical trial
Howard D Sesso, JoAnn E Manson, Aaron K Aragaki, Pamela M Rist, Lisa G Johnson, Georgina Friedenberg, Trisha Copeland, Allison Clar, Samia Mora, M Vinayaga Moorthy, Ara Sarkissian, William R Carrick, Garnet L Anderson
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Published 2022 Mar 16
Click Here for the Study: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9170467/
Petition for a Qualified Health Claim – for Cocoa Flavanols and Reduced
Risk of Cardiovascular Disease (Docket No. FDA-2019-Q-0806)
Claudine Kavanaugh
Office of Nutrition and Food Labeling, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Published February 1, 2023
Click Here for the Letter: https://www.fda.gov/media/165090/download?attachment
Chocolate intake and risk of type 2 diabetes: prospective cohort studies
Binkai Liu, Geng Zong, Lu Zhu, Yang Hu, JoAnn E Manson, Molin Wang, Eric B Rimm, Frank B Hu, Qi Sun
thebmj, Accepted 5 October 2024
Click Here for the Study: https://www.bmj.com/content/387/bmj-2023-078386
Dark chocolate intake and cardiovascular diseases: a Mendelian randomization study
Juntao Yang, Jiedong Zhou, Jie Yang, Haifei Lou, Bingjie Zhao, Jufang Chi & Weiliang Tang
Scientific Reports, Published 10 January 2024
Click Here for the Study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-50351-6
Impact of Alkalization on the Antioxidant and Flavanol Content of Commercial Cocoa Powders
Kenneth B. Miller, William Jeffery Hurst, Mark J. Payne, David A. Stuart, Joan Apgar, Daniel S. Sweigart and Boxin Ou
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Published August 19, 2008
Click Here for the Study: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jf801670p
A multi-year heavy metal analysis of 72 dark chocolate and cocoa products in the USA
Jacob M. Hands, Mark L. Anderson, Tod Cooperman, Jared E. Balsky, Leigh A. Frame
Nutrition and Food Science Technology, Published 30 July 2024
Click Here for the Study: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2024.1366231/full
Dietary flavanols restore hippocampal-dependent memory in older adults with lower diet quality and lower habitual flavanol consumption
Adam M. Brickman, Lok-Kin Yeung, Daniel M. Alschuler, and Scott A. Small
PNAS, Published 06 June 2017
Click Here for the Study: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2216932120
Cocoa Intake, Blood Pressure, and Cardiovascular Mortality - The Zutphen Elderly Study
Brian Buijsse, Edith J. M. Feskens, Frans J. Kok, and Daan Kromhout
JAMA Internal Medicine, Published Online: February 27, 2006
Click Here for the Study: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/409867
New light on changes in the number and function of blood platelets stimulated by cocoa and its products
Beata Olas
frontiers Pharmacology, Published 11 March 2024
Click Here for the Study: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2024.1366076/full
Flavan-3-ols and Cardiometabolic Health: First Ever Dietary Bioactive Guideline
Kristi M Crowe-White, Levi W Evans, Gunter G C Kuhnle, Dragan Milenkovic, Kim Stote, Taylor Wallace, Deepa Handu, Katelyn E Senkus
Advances in Nutrition, Published Volume 13, Issue 6, November 2022, Pages 2070-2083
Click Here for the Study: https://doi.org/10.1093/advances/nmac105
(–)-Epicatechin mediates beneficial effects of flavanol-rich cocoa on vascular function in humans
Hagen Schroeter, Christian Heiss, Jan Balzer, and Malte KelmAuthors
PNAS, Published January 17, 2006
Click Here for the Study: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0510168103
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11/16/2019
Updated 8/31/2022
Updated 11/22/2025
