Can you swallow this Mars claim?
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Your support makes all the difference."Functional" foods which are good for your health are all the rage. There's Benecol, a cholesterol-reducing margarine, and Yakult yoghurt drink, containing "friendly" digestive bacteria, to name a few. Now the public have been asked to swallow news of another less obvious health food: The Mars Bar.
"Functional" foods which are good for your health are all the rage. There's Benecol, a cholesterol-reducing margarine, and Yakult yoghurt drink, containing "friendly" digestive bacteria, to name a few. Now the public have been asked to swallow news of another less obvious health food: The Mars Bar.
Mars is patenting a new chocolate-making process which it claims can help to reduce heart disease, and is using a new logo to promote it. The company is sponsoring research in the US which claims to show that cocoa beans used to make chocolate contain naturally occurring polyphenols - plant compounds whose antioxidant properties can reduce the risk of heart disease. It is patenting a manufacturing process by which polyphenols can be retained in the chocolate. To promote the findings, Mars has created a "Cocoapro" trademark, and is repackaging its confectionery with a new logo: a chocolate-coloured hand holding a cocoa bean.
"Polyphenols act as antioxidants - they can combat LDL oxidation which can lead to deposits in arteries, and reduce platelet activation. They are pretty powerful antioxidants," said Dr Josephine Wills, head of external science and health for Mars. "What we've done is preserve as much of the natural level as possible."
She added that while not making "any specific health claim", Mars believed there were benefits. "We're not saying go out and eat 20 bars, but we just wanted people to be aware that there are good things in chocolate - to put it on a list with tea and red wine. There's too much guilt about chocolate."
But the food watchdog the Food Commission is "highly sceptical" of any Mars bar health benefits. "Okay, there's the cocoa beans, but what about the fat and the sugar? A Mars bar is high fat, high sugar - not what you would consider a healthy product, although the odd one is not going to hurt you," said spokesman Ian Tokelove.
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