The discovery of Raw Cacao

I am a big fan of David Wolfe, the author and raw foodist. Though, I am not a raw foodist myself, I'm still a huge fan and recently picked up two of his books. Naked Chocolate and Superfoods (both found below on my picks)

Raw Cacao - WOW. I'm not sure that I've ever met a woman, (and lots of men) who don't have a serious love affair with chocolate. I've always been fascinated by the stuff personally. I mean, I read things here and there about antioxidants and all of the good things that come from eating dark chocolate, and how it raises serotonin levels, so I was excited to find more information on a nutritious reason to eat it. BUT I'm tell you, you have no idea until you try Raw Chocolate.

 Ok SO what is Raw Chocolate? - Well, according to David Wolfe in Naked Chocolate the average chocolate bar goes through a WHOLE lot of processing just to get to your lips. The Cacao beans (what all chocolate is made from) are heated to intense heats of 250+ degrees (heating foods to intense degrees always removes either some or all of their beneficial nutrients), then they're pressed, cracked, filtered, turned into powder, and different agents are added to improve its soluble effect in water.. the list of stuff goes on and on. The average chocolate bar also usually contains all or some of the following: powdered milk, pesticide residues and artificial hormone residues (fed to the animal who produced the milk), genetically modified soy lecithin, refined sugar.. bleh.. all this stuff that makes you feel guilty for eating chocolate in the first place and can actually block the antioxidant rich properties.

Raw Chocolate is beneficial because 1. It isn’t heated, so it retains its natural healing properties and key nutrients. 2. It isn’t chemicalized and doesn’t have all the dairy, nut resides (if you are allergic), and all the other bad stuff that really isn’t good for you added to it.

 My experience - I visited my local natural foods store Wile By Nature, and picked up a bag of powdered Raw Cacao made by Navitas Naturals(pure cacao, raw, vegan, kosher, and certified organic). I took it home and really didn’t know what to do with it, so I took out my blender added some ice, blueberries, a little agave nectar and two scoops of raw cacao. At first I was really surprised, because it actually tasted GOOD. And when I say good I mean GOOD. Sometimes when I try new things, they don’t always taste that great and it seems like you have to "acquire a taste" for them. NOT true here... this was just like having a really rich, super quality chocolate shake. So since then I've been making shakes similar to my first days recipe and hot chocolate versions (with water that’s hot but not yet boiling)

I've been enjoying and experimenting for a week now.. and I have to say there are a few things that I defiantly noticed. My concentration is much better, my mood is more stable and somewhat elevated, I feel like I have more energy.. but not like I’m bench pressing things, more like I just don’t feel bogged down or wiped out during the day (and don’t have a crash either, I just feel totally stable physically and emotionally).

SO I'll keep experimenting and I'll keep you updated on my results, in the mean time pick up some raw cacao and experiment!

I found a great site with recipes for the stuff too
http://www.navitasnaturals.com/recipes/cacao-recipes.html