CocoaVia™ Dark Chocolate Sweetened, 30 Count Box

well, bumping didn't work, lol

Ok, check out the INGREDIANTS!

You've got
1-Cocoa Powder
2- Maltodextrin
3-Salt
4-Natural Flavor
5-Carrageenan,
6- Soy Lecithin,
7-Sucralose

Maltodextrin is a polysaccharide that is used as a food additive. It is produced from starch and is usually found as a white powder. It is easily digestible, being absorbed as rapidly as glucose; (SUGAR)_commonly used for the production of sodas and candy. It can also be found as an ingredient in a variety of other processed foods.

Carrageenan is another polysaccharide that is used for it's "gelling" ability. It helps hold stuff together or can also, for example, give granules of a powder a more "desirable texture"...Carrageenans are large, highly flexible molecules.They are widely used in the food and other industries as thickening and stabilizing agents. They are extracted from red seaweeds.... which almost sounds healthy but there WERE several health concerns... a quick google search gave me this... "The Joint FAO/WHO expert committee on food additives states that, "based on the information available, it is inadvisable to use carrageenan or processed eucheuma seaweed in infant formulas. There is evidence from studies performed on rats, guinea pigs, and monkeys that indicates that degraded carrageenan (poligeenan) may cause ulcerations in the gastro-intestinal tract and gastro-intestinal cancer."


Lecithins are oily substances that occur naturally in plants (soybeans) and animals (egg yolks). Soy lecithin (E322) is extracted from soybeans either mechanically or chemically. It’s actually a byproduct of the soybean oil production. Lecithin is basically the sludge remains of oil production typically chemically retracted and contains solvents and pesticides. It used to be considered waste product in ..I think the 30s..then they decided hey why through this sludge away? Now it is used as a gummy substance to keep granola bars together and to keep water and fat from separating in processed foods. You will most commonly find soy lecithin which should be the same as sunflower lecithin just a waste product of sunflower oil production instead of soy beans. What is DOES have going for it is It’s high choline content. Choline is a micronutrient that is good for heart health and brain development. But that’s not the reason soy lecithin is used as an additive in foods. It possesses emulsification properties. This means it can keep a candy bar “together” by making sure that the cocoa and the cocoa butter don’t separate. It is also used in bakery items to keep the dough from sticking and to improve its ability to rise. You will read some people praise it for health benefits because it contains choline. Well .. so do a lot of natural whole foods. I swear some people judge health food soley on positives and ignore the negatives. Like if a turd was high on calcium there would be people praising it.

Sucralose and salt we all know... and as for natural flavors...who know what that means?

You're better off taking a choline supplement (or better yet! getting it from other natural food sources such as liver, eggs, navy beans, almonds, cauliflower or tofu) and adding some pure unsweetened cocoa in to your diet (a nonfat Greek yogurt smoothie with cocoa and strawberries is delicious) and skipping the processed stuff and salt!

Hope that helps! xo