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Dark Chocolate Can’t Stack Up to Raw!

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October 21, 2008
	Jo Wehage : Head Operations Ego

Beyond the Pretty Wrapper
Then along comes raw organic chocolate to blow all those elegant bars to chocolate bits. Seriously, if dark chocolate is a semi-precious stone, then raw chocolate is the flawless diamond. You see, like anything, the more processed a food is, the more nutrients are lost – but you already knew that. Where our logic was short-sighted was by looking at an item that had a fraction of the health benefits (and a fair amount of negative additives), say milk chocolate, and look for ways to increase those. Dark chocolate varieties answered that call, but they still contain just a fraction of what’s available from that power-house known as the cacao bean.

Cacao (cocoa) is derived from Theobroma Cacao beans, which literally means “Food of the Gods”. Cacao contains over 300 compounds including: antioxidants, protein, fat, carbohydrates, fiber, iron, zinc, copper, calcium and magnesium.

Way up the ORAC Scale
Let’s take a gander at some ORAC values of some of the top antioxidant rich foods. If you’re not familiar, The ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) scale was developed by the United States Department of Agriculture to measure the effectiveness of antioxidants to absorb free radicals that cause cell and tissue damage. The higher the ORAC score, the higher the level of antioxidants present in the food.

ORAC scores for some Top Antioxidants Foods (per 100 grams)

1. Raw cocoa powder* 95,500
2. Raw cocoa nibs* 62,100
3. Roasted cocoa powder 26,000
4. Organic Goji Berries* 25,300
5. Acai Berries* 18,500
6. Dark Chocolate 13,120
7. Milk Chocolate 6,740
8. Prunes 5,770
9. Raisins 2,830
10. Blueberries 2,400

Source: US Department of Agriculture/Journal of American Chemical Society
*Brunswick Laboratories MA, USA

Turns out you can get more than seven times the antioxidant power of dark chocolate and more than fourteen times that of milk chocolate if you go raw! Not bad for a little bean, eh?

What Makes Raw So Super?
The health benefits of chocolate are mainly due to its rich flavonoid content. The more chocolate is processed, the fewer flavonoids it retains. The reason raw chocolate leaves even the dark chocolate bars in the dust is because it is processed at low temperatures to protect the valuable nutrient profile inside and it has zero added ingredients. It’s 100% health-promoting, versus the typical chocolate bar which loses much of the nutrition through the hot temperatures during processing and then has to share space with less healthy ingredients like sugar, milk, and oil.

Organic it is
It’s also important to select an “organic” raw cacao to maximize the antioxidants AND to be sure you’re not consuming a whole lot of chemicals from irradiation and spraying of chemicals which are standard practice in growing cacao beans.

Health Benefits
Since raw cacao is a food, not a drug, there can be no “legal” claim that it helps treat or prevent any disease, however we’d still like to share some of the health benefits researchers have associated with the flavonoid content of chocolate:

• Protecting your cells from free radical damage, triggering mutations which can lead to cancer, premature aging, etc.

• Positive impacts for your heart, as flavonoids help to prevent stickiness of platelets, which are cells that play an important role in blood clotting.

• Help your body produce nitric oxide, a compound that promotes a healthy cardiovascular system.

• Helps lower “bad” LDL cholesterol while boosting “good” HDL cholesterol.

• Increased blood flow to the brain, allowing more focus and better brain function. Cocoa is of particular interest to many Alzheimer’s researchers.

Our Favorite
Ever since we lectured on the amazing health properties of raw chocolate at our first Bodyfest event, readers have been writing and asking where to find the best variety. Based on your requests we started to sample many varieties (tough job, but someone had to do it) and our favorite so far comes from Navita Naturals. Navitas is company that met all our standards in terms of product quality as well as socially and environmentally responsible practices. You can find them in more and more retail stores or look for them at Amazon.com.

The powder is smooth and tasty. It’s become the staple of my morning smoothie. From a personal standpoint, I’ve decided that even if I do nothing else right that day, I like to boost my morning nutrition intake with a healthy smoothie. I used to rotate between a fruit and green smoothie, but since the addition of the antioxidant powerhouse of the cacao bean I’ve been hopelessly unbalanced on the side of chocolate.

I combine two tablespoons of the powder, with rice or soy milk, coconut milk, ground chia seeds, a dash of green tea powder, a banana and a scoop of some cacao nibs to add a delicious chocolaty crunch after most sips (wider straw required).

A Note on Nibs
Most of the cacao nibs we tried were a nice addition if you were looking for a crunchy texture to say smoothies, oatmeal or even peanut butter and toast, but these are not the melt in your mouth chocolate chips you’re used to adding to your cookie batter. They are pure, no sugar added and more bitter than processed chocolate. However I have to say the Navitas brand nibs are the first brand that I found myself grabbing a small spoonful and crunching on as a stand-alone snack when I zoomed through the kitchen with a quick chocolate fix dancing in my head.

Now – go forth and let them eat raw chocolate!