Dear Friends;
Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate.
Chocolate evokes passion, adoration, even veneration. We crave it, seek it out, consume it raw, cooked, liquefied, pureed. Historically, chocolate has even been used medicinally to treat fatigue and to aid digestive issues.
The Incas considered it a food of the Gods. Some migraine sufferers call it the devil’s fare. Studies have been conducted to prove that it can cure or prevent pretty much anything. I know of people who lock it up, throw it away half-eaten, hide it, some are unable to keep it in the house or even walk down that isle in the supermarket.
But, it seems, nobody is oblivious to the powers of chocolate.
What is it about chocolate that makes us feel the way we do?
Of course there are the physiological components: The cacao bean is the highest natural source of magnesium, iron and chromium available. It provides tryptophan and serotonin – said to regulate mood, appetite and sleep – and Theobromine, which gives life a little kick similar to that of caffeine only without the come-down or the spike in blood sugar. And what about the PEA, or Phenylethilamine, a chemical that is also present when we are in love? All in all, not a bad package.
However, not all chocolate is created equal. (You knew that was coming, didn’t you?) Milk chocolate offers much less, if any, nutritional benefits – unless you count blood sugar and mood swings among them. And, like anything else, cheap chocolate is usually diluted, flavoured, over-processed and so might taste like chocolate, but that’s only because your tongue has forgotten about the real thing.
It’s kind of like comparing instant coffee with freshly ground beans made right.
Na-uh, friends, I won’t let you get away with it.
I would like to introduce you to my personal chocolate preference: raw chocolate.
When people assume I don’t eat things like chocolate, I can only laugh because they couldn’t be more wrong! In fact, rarely does a day go by when I don’t eat chocolate. I have it in my morning smoothies, I make raw chocolate bars and biscuits, I even add it to savoury dips on occasion.
Raw chocolate is unheated and less processed than traditional chocolate and so has retained many nutritional benefits such as the vitamin C, which gets destroyed by heat, or the oils – which cacao is rich in – that go rancid when exposed to higher temperatures.
While cacao is heralded as a Superfood for all of its nutritional benefits, it is also the ultimate comfort food as many of us. Remember celebrating birthdays with chocolate cake? Chocolate chip cookies were a childhood favourite for pretty much everyone. And who doesn’t still love slurping that steaming cup of hot cocoa on a cold winter night?
But the beauty of this day and age is that it doesn’t need to be one or the other – you can have your cake and eat it too! Not every piece of chocolate is created equal, but we have the choice about which kind we put in our mouths and whether it will simply be another sugary treat, or whether we want to make use of that moment of indulgence to enhance our lives.
Go on, I dare you!
With love,
Gabriela
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