Some of you may be very happy to find chocolate or cacao on a blog for healthy food. And I can tell you, I am as well :-)
And cacao really has the legitimation as a so-called „superfood“ and also to be here on the blog. If it is raw cacao. Because unfortunately the processed cacao, heated and combined with sugar, milk etc. contains no more goodness, but on the contrary through its aforementioned buddies and the processing it contains a lot of calories and saturated fat. That might taste great, make happy and addictive, but has nothing to do with „super“.
And that’s what the raw cacao has to offer:
- the highest magnesium content of all plants!!
- the highest iron content of all plants (7.3 mg per 100g, beef brings it only to 2.5 mg per 100g) !!
- over 600 antioxidants (even more than green tea, oranges, goji berries, blueberries or red wine)
- more calcium (160 mg per 100g) than cow’s milk (125 mg per 100g)
- lots of vitamin C and E
- lots of fiber
- zinc, copper and chromium
- high spirits by the increased secretion of serotonin, endorphins, phenylethylamine and anandamide
- strong nerves and stress resistance due to the high magnesium content
- good digestion due to the high fiber content
- a healthy heart through the abundance of antioxidants
- lower blood pressure through the chrome and flavanols, which keep the blood vessels elastic
- a decreased appetite and an increased glucose metabolism -> especially good for diabetics
- good skin (if you use cacao in form of cocoa butter as skincare)
If you want to savor the full power of the ingredients, it is important not to heat the raw cacao over 42 ° C. I use only raw cacao in my recipes and I am always looking for recipes „without baking“ and especially love cacao nibs (coarsely chopped cocoa beans) which I sprinkle over my muesli. Both are available e.g. from Govinda at Alnatura or at other health food stores (in Germany). Be sure that the package says „raw food quality“ or „raw“. Moreover, you don’t need that much of the raw cacao because it is much more intense in flavor!
And if you often feel the urgent desire to get chocolate and normally buy a candy bar, that is also no problem since nowadays there are quite a lot of delicious pre-packaged bars with raw cacao and without refined sugar (mostly sweetened with agave syrup or dates) such as Lovechock, RAW Bite, RooBar etc. You can buy it at the health food store and sometimes even at normal supermarkets or at the kiosk.
But if you have time and desire to make it yourself, I highly recommend to you these homemade Bounty Bars or my raw brownies :-)
Sweet greetings!
Cheers, Steffi
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