Chocolate is good for the soul. I think everyone can agree on that. How good does it feel to eat chocolate? Especially after a chocolate craving!!
Remember a long time ago when one of your friends told you that chocolate is good for you? You were skeptical… how could something you had classified as candy for your entire life be good for you? Furthermore, some guy in the freshman dorms told you that chocolate makes you horny and confided in you that he strategically gives a chocolate bar to all of his dates. But when you heard it again and again and you decided that there must be some truth to the power of chocolate! The feeling of guilt while devouring a milk chocolate Nestle bar slowly dissolved and Reece’s Pieces became a health food adventure. Finally, at some point you learned that sugary and chemically loaded grocery store chocolate was not a health food (if this is news, this post is not the bearer of bad news, I promise!) and you needed to find a purer form for it to be healthy.
Ultimately, it is no secret that indulging in too many sugary treats such as chocolate can have a negative impact on your oral health. With this in mind, if you want to avoid cavities, tooth decay, and gum disease, alongside regular checkups with a Dentist in Naples or a dentist in your area, cutting down on your sugar consumption is imperative.
The purest form of chocolate is cacao. Cacao is the seed of a fruit that grows on a tree in central and South American jungles. These seeds, called “cacao beans,” have been called “fruit of the Gods.”
One of my favorite fun facts about cacao is that the Mayans and Aztecs would use cacao as money instead of gold. I personally love the taste of raw cacao beans but my boyfriend doesn’t care for the bitterness and I always remind him of this fact when he makes a face at the beans. Gold was for aesthetic purposes in the Aztec empire, the currency was chocolate.
When Cortez returned to Spain in 1528 he brought chocolate into Europe. He wrote of the cacao drink: “The divine drink which builds up resistance and fights fatigue. A cup of this precious drink permits a man to walk for a while day without food.” It was the Europeans who added refined cane sugar to the cacao drink. Cheap, sugary chocolate with added milk powder was developed for the masses in the late 1800s by Swiss chemist Henri Nestle, taking most of the medicinal properties out of the product.
Cacao is heavy in the following nutrients: anti-oxidants, magnesium, Iron, Chromium, Manganese, and Zinc, Copper and Vitamin C. But there are two specific benefits I want to focus on. That guy in the freshman dorms wasn’t entirely wrong in his approach in associating chocolate to love. There are a class of compounds called Phenylethylamines that are abundant in cacao, which are similar to the chemicals our body produces when we fall in love! Therefore, chocolate makes us feel like we’re in love, how great is that?!
As a person who suffered from depression as a young woman (ranging from minor to severe at different points in my early 20s) and who has an affinity for anti-medication, I’ve used chocolate as a feel-good aid for almost a decade. Those around me, who also suffered from depression at that age, often tried things like cannabis and so could usually be found buying more ash catchers or other weed accessories. On the other hand, my go-to was chocolate. This is because chocolate is rich in Serotonin which helps us build a “stress-defense shield” and Anandamine which is known as a “bliss chemical”.
As I stated before, I love the taste of raw cacao, but everything tastes better when it’s dipped in raw honey, right? Below is a little trail mix snack I like to eat with the raw cacao.
So excuse me while I go eat some now….Enjoy your chocolate.
Smoothie Recipe:
Raw Cacau
Raw Gogi Berries
Organic Raw Honey
Organic Frozen Banana
Cinnamon
Almond Milk
Kale (Optional)
Ice (Optional)
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