Raw Chocolate: Let me Seduce you…
© Sophie Dubus
I love chocolate! Who doesn’t? But it often causes me to feel a bit drained and lethargic. You get that immediate high, followed by a sugar crash, so you either reach for another piece to regain the high or curl up in bed feeling sick.
Desire for chocolate
You will often see claims that dark chocolate is good for you because of the higher levels of antioxidants and whilst that does hold some truth, as soon as you mix in sugar, milk, emulsifiers and other nasties, you’re kind of ruining it. The cocoa used in regular chocolate is also highly heat processed and as a result loses most of its other nutrients.
Enter: raw chocolate. Not only higher in antioxidants, but with a range of other health benefits including magnesium, calcium, zinc, iron, copper, potassium, manganese and a range of B vitamins. How?
Raw chocolate is made from unroasted raw cacao beans. Cacao is chocolate, but not as we know it. In its raw state it has more than 300 nutritional components and is one of the richest sources of antioxidants of any food in the world! It is the purest form of chocolate; but although the aroma is pleasingly familiar, the taste is incredibly bitter and most people would grimace as soon as they have their first taste. To make it more palatable a sweetener is added; in raw chocolate this is usually coconut nectar sugar which comes from the coconut palm. Coconut nectar sugar contains vital nutrients and has a lower GI than cane sugar; but a word of caution – it does still contain fructose and should not be consumed in excess.
Everything in moderation! A little bit of raw chocolate is good for you and certainly has much higher health benefits than regular chocolate. Try the switch; see if you can taste the difference in quality and experience the difference in how it makes you feel. And if you can learn to love 100% pure raw cacao, then love the best chocolate in the world!