Food/Healthy Living
Are Dark Chocolate Good As People Say?
We are always bombarded by how beneficial dark chocolate is. What is the truth here?
The truth of the matter here is that any type of chocolate including dark and organic chocolate is bad for your health. The reason is that the cacao seed or bean, the main ingredient in chocolate is in itself good, as it reduces inflammation, balances sugar level, and harmonise the immune system, but the extensive processing has robbed it of its nutritional value and goodness.
Know The Difference Between Cacao & Cocoa
The raw version of cocoa bean is known as cacao. When cacao is picked up, they are chopped, or cold-pressed to make cacao powder. The further processing of cacao gives cocoa powder that is used to make chocolate.
Cocoa powder is widely used commercially as chocolate bars, drinks, powder and in other varieties.
Important Issues About Chocolate.
Cacao beans are fermented, roasted at high temperatures (depleting the nutritional value) before further processing into cocoa mass. This is done by shelling the beans and using rollers to make them into a paste, known as cocoa mass.
Cocoa butter is extracted from the cocoa mass by means of a hydraulic press. It is the cocoa butter that is further refined and processed to make chocolate. So you can see how cacao beans are denatured to give you chocolate bars.
Chocolate also contains two amino acids, tryptophan and phenylethylamine, which help the body produce happy hormones and feelings of elation and euphoria.
This gives the addictive nature of chocolate. Chocolate gives a high BMI and can cause weight gain, and or raw sugar imbalance.
What About Raw Cacao?
It is natural to believe that the cacao powder we buy in stores is raw cacao. That is not the case. The raw beans are fermented and heated breaking down the tannin, and this gives a good taste. If unheated, raw and fermented cacao is bitter, but unfortunately, the heat destroys the good bacteria (from fermentation), and natural antioxidants present in raw cacao.
Eating raw cacao is also linked to overstimulation of the kidneys and adrenal glands, poor digestion, constipation, bloating and wind, lower immune system function and liver and blood toxicity.
The Takeaways
- In the years past, the Maya, who first tasted the cacao bean used to drink it as a bitter fermented beverage, mixed with spices or wine.
- The cacao seed or bean in its natural state is bitter, so when heated up, it gives a good taste, but the heat destroys the nutrients.