CocoaVia snack bars are still candy

CocoaVia Chocolate and Snack Bars. Chocolate, Chocolate Almond, Chocolate Blueberry, and Chocolate Cherry Snack Bars; Chocolate Covered Almonds; and Original Chocolate, Crispy Chocolate and Blueberry & Almond Chocolate Bars. $4.99 per 3.55- to 5-ounce box or bag.

Bonnie: I felt almost virtuous eating one of these new CocoaVia candy bars, thinking I was doing something good for my heart. Then I snapped back to reality, realizing that I was eating a candy bar.

Let me back up a second. CocoaVia candy bars do contain lots of heart-healthy ingredients. They include plant sterols, which lower blood cholesterols when eaten in specific quantities twice a day, as long as you continue to eat them. (Sterols are also found in orange juice, granola bars and margarines.)

Each CocoaVia bar also contains flavanols or phytochemicals with antioxidant benefits and added heart-healthy vitamins and minerals.

But even with all that, I can't recommend eating two of these daily. That's because these are still candy bars, and two a day will be sure to promote an expanding waistline. What I can recommend is that people who regularly eat candy bars consider eating one of these new CocoaVia products instead.

Carolyn: The too-good-to-be-true research showing the heart benefits of eating dark chocolate is now starting to produce some similarly too-good-to-be-believed chocolate products.

MasterFoods' CocoaVia line starts with the idea of the healthful flavanols in dark chocolate and includes other good-for-you ingredients like soy, blueberries, nuts and calcium. And it offers small portion sizes.

The thin, segmented chocolate bars, for instance, have only 100 calories and are delicious, if you like bittersweet chocolate. These include a Nestle Crunch copycat with soy crisps that thankfully lend texture and no soy taste, and Chocolate Blueberry, which sounds a lot weirder than it tastes (like chocolate-covered cherries, without the juice).

The CocoaVia snack bars are also fine for what they are, which is more of a grain-based granola bar than straight chocolate, and therefore less of a treat. They are like half-sized versions of the tastiest energy bars (i.e., Luna).

The chocolate-covered almonds are like the chocolate-covered raisins and peanuts bridge mix, except that the hard chocolate coating is dark rather than milk. It's a very satisfactory replacement for a bag of Peanut M&M's, with 100 fewer calories.