Carbohydrates in the form of sugars provide a source of quickly available energy. If the immediate resources of the body become deficient due to exercise or lack of regular food intake, the sugars in confectionery provide one of the quickest ways of restoring the balance and so cocoa and chocolate products are often eaten as snacks between meals. Cocoa contains a variety of minerals and vitamins. Cocoa powder contains proteins in small and varying levels but the protein from cocoa powder is low in digestibility. Whenever a cocoa powder is manufactured from well fermented cocoa beans and these are roasted in the correct manner it will contain carbohydrates in the form of sugars.
Cocoa powder contains a variety of minerals of which potassium and sodium are of primary importance.
Cocoa powder is not an important source of vitamins as they occur in negligible quantities, the exception is vitamin E, which occurs in higher quantities due to the presence of cocoa butter. The calorific value of cocoa powder is intrinsically low and thus it contributes little to a product's total calorific value. Therefore the nutritional value will vary with the ingredients. For example, dark chocolate has a high proportion of cocoa solids and will therefore retain more of the nutritional value of cocoa than milk chocolate which has a lower proportion of cocoa solids. But, in milk chocolate the milk provides a rich source of proteins which the body can use and so its protein value is higher than that of dark chocolate.