The Complete Cacao Master List
Welcome to, "The Complete Cacao Master List", on the healthy benefits and nutritional facts of eating or drinking cacao and chocolate in its many different forms. We won't cover snorting cacao. For more about what is cacao though, first, go check out my other blogs. As you will learn throughout the blog, and on this list, the nutrition does not occur from chocolate, but only from cacao consumption. Let these nutrition facts serve you as it has served us in a delicious pursuit for wellness. You will not find a better list of these benefits of cacao anywhere else, in one place, on the web.
"After water, cacao is the single healthiest substance you can put in your mouth. - Chris Kilham, Medicine Hunter.
If anyone ever asks, why eat (or drink) cacao instead of chocolate, use the following list to inform any cacao curious friends. If you want to eat chocolate anyway, just cross your fingers that you are getting some of these miraculous benefits. If you are eating milk chocolate, note that its likely none of the benefits will be absorbed by your body. Did you need another reason to try plant-based chocolate?
Let's start with most mind blowing cacao facts. Typically folks don't know about these because we are, as Americans, addicted to chocolate. Could the below information be the reason or is it just sugar? Either way, it is IMPOSSIBLE, to get addicted to cacao itself. Cravings, on the other hand can be based on the body's need for nutrition. Anything that creates dopamine in the brain can become "addictive". So being addicted to chocolate is really just an addiction to food or, substance abuse. This author's theory is that when we reach for chocolate, we are actually craving the nutrition in cacao (beans). Having been addicted to chocolate, all I can say is that not switching to cacao, you could potentially become pre-diabetic -- a disease in Hawai'i which affects 45% of the adult population. Some of the below data will be interesting, yet familiar. Like if you've ever researched cacao (or chocolate), you probably know it has over 1,200 chemicals (https://www.yogajournal.com
/lifestyle/we-tried-a-cacao-ritual-for-gratitude/). For comparison, coffee and wine have approximately 1,000 plant compounds, combined (http://www.coffeeteaimagazine.
com/coffee-wine-pairing/). Some of the data below includes and demonstrates a few, but not all, of the 1,200 chemicals in cacao.
Cacao contains: more calcium than milk
more iron than any other plant
more theobromine than any other food
more anti-oxidants than any other food
more magnesium than any other food
Its been established that dairy-milk leaches calcium from bones and causes osteoporosis. Without a PhD, its still easy to do the math -- milk chocolate may not be your best go to for any nutrition.
Cacao also has endocannibinoids and mood elevators like:
tyramine precursor to dopamine, "The Kiss Molecule"; oxytocin "The Hug Molecule" or " The Bonding Molecule";
anadamide "The Bliss Molecule" (black truffles are the only other food with anadamide);
tryptophan precursor to serotonin, "The Happy Molecule";
phenylethylamine (PEA) "The Love Molecule"; norepinephrine "The Joy Molecule"(produced by PEA). From cacao, and again, not from milk chocolate, there are anti-depressants like effects from compounds that cause satiation. They are N-linoleoylethanolamide and oleoylethanolamide. They prevent the break down of anadamide and other cannibiniods including THC, making effects last longer (https://nootropicsdepot.com/articles/chocamine-clinically-studied-cocoa-extract-memory-focus-concentration), (https://toakchocolate.com/blogs/news/can-dark
-chocolate-enhance-the-functional-benefits-of-cbd-and-improve-your-endocannabinoid-tone). Seratonin, created from tryptophan absorption can also help depression (by the way). To get the most mood lifting benefits, just confirm you are reaching for cacao not chocolate.