Mars Inc. is planning dark-chocolate versions of its M&M's, Snickers and Milky Way candies made with flavanols, which supposedly help reduce blood pressure and lower cholesterol.

"Chocolate ... is the No.1 flavor ingredient in the world. Heart health is the No.1 concern," said Mars official Jimmy Cass. "Putting those two together is automatically a big idea."

So does this mean you can gorge on candy bars and dump the tofu, yogurt and granola?

Not exactly.

Nutritionists say the new chocolates may be a bit better for you than the heart attack in a wrapper that came before it. But health food, it ain't.

"If you enjoy the taste of dark chocolate, enjoy it," said Rachael Brandeis of the American Dietetic Association. "But you always have to be conscious of how much you're eating."

The new chocolate is dubbed CocoaVia and is made from a type of dark chocolate high in flavanols, an antioxidant found in cocoa beans that is thought to have a blood-thinning effect similar to aspirin.

The snacks, which will cost a bit more than regular chocolate, also are enriched with vitamins and injected with cholesterol-lowering plant sterols from soy, the main ingredient in healthy tofu.

There's no hard evidence any of this will make your average chocolate bar-chomping American any healthier, said John Swartzberg, a University of California professor of health and medical science.

"But it did taste good," he said.