Celebrate National Nutrition Month with a Healthy Snack

Time to talk chocolate, one of my favorite subjects, as it’s National Nutrition Month. It may seem like a strange pairing but ‘tis true. Mars Chocolate North America has chosen the Boulder/Denver market for the launch its new goodnessKnows™ luscious snacksquares. The thinking behind this is that our market is a hub for healthy living and health-conscious consumers. Trending is showing us that consumers are also gravitating back toward healthy snacks and nutrition bars. Indulgence without guilt is what Pierre Buisson, Standard Functional Foods Group, says consumers are looking for and nutrition companies are trying to achieve. He also adds that food companies are making nutritional options taste good without adding numbers to the scale. Add chocolate to this and you have a winning combination in my book.

What sets goodnessKnows snacksquares apart from other chocolate products and/or healthy snacks is the fact that they are made from cocoa beans specially selected and handled to retain cocoa flavanols, which help support healthy circulation for a free flow of oxygen and nutrients throughout the body. The consumption of flavonoids has been positively linked to a number of human health benefits and all goodnessKnows products are guaranteed to contain at least 200 mg of bio-available cocoa flavanols in every four-square serving. I got that explanation from Catherine Kwik-Uribe, PhD., applied cocoa flavanols research manager at Mars, Inc., who examines the potential role of specific cocoa-derived compounds (i.e., cocoa flavanols) in human health. Want to know about all things chocolate, she’s your gal.

So why Boulder? Now that would make a fun headline and banter on Leno. A recent Gallup Poll named Boulder as the Happiest, Healthy City in the United States. I couldn’t agree more but then again, I’m a bit biased. No matter what you think of Boulder, it is a great test market for healthy natural foods. We have some tough critics from moms to athletes to media to community leaders to professors at the University of Colorado, just to name a few. According to Kwik-Uribe, they could have chosen anywhere but chose Boulder because the community is quite aware of what it means to be healthy and have good snack options. She also mentioned that Mars is committed to cocoa sustainability and is focused on improving the planet and lives of cocoa farmers through responsible agricultural practices. Something Boulder can appreciate, too.

Denver you’ll have your chance in a few more weeks. So go ahead and celebrate this month with a healthy new snack. Give goodnessKnows a try and let us know what you think.

~ Amy