“I could give up chocolate, but I’m not a quitter.”
—ANONYMOUS
“Anything is good, if it’s covered in chocolate.”
—JO BRAND, COMEDIENNE
The cacao bean comes from the cacao fruit, which is a pod growing mainly in Africa and South America, similar to a papaya. The fruit is delicious, and consumed by the native people, white and creamy and not overly sweet; similar to custard apple. Each fruit contains between 20 – 50 beans, and the cacao bean is what all chocolate is made from. So why have we only recently discovered the health benefits of chocolate? The average bar of chocolate you find on the supermarket shelves is made from cocoa solids. Fermenting the beans, then drying them out, makes cocoa solids. The beans are then cleaned and roasted, and this heating process destroys many of their nutritional properties. The roasted beans then have their shells removed and the result are the nibs, broken-up bits of bean. The nibs are then intensely heated again, so the oils melt to form what is known as chocolate liquor. The chocolatiers take the cocoa solids and at very high temperatures, mix them with ingredients—usually milk, sugar and emulsifiers—to make a chocolate bar. So the cacao bean goes through three heating processes, has many of its beneficial oils removed, is combined with foods that are not optimally healthy, and the chocolate that we experience is but a poor shadow of the real thing. In Europe, regulations state that to be called milk chocolate, a bar must contain at least 10% cocoa solids—so in a high street chocolate bar, only one-tenth of the actual ingredients have to be this denatured form of chocolate, and the rest is fattening, bad for your teeth, acidic, and unbalancing for the blood sugar! The discovery of the raw cacao bean is analogous to having only been fed white sliced bread our whole lives and suddenly discovering the power of the whole wheat grain; or only drinking orange juice made from concentrate out of a carton and having freshly squeezed for the first time. Despite this, it is still one of the most popular foods on the planet. There is no other food which people become so openly and willingly addicted to! This gives us some idea of the power of cacao.
Pottery evidence of the use of cacao dates back to Honduras in 2000 B.C., although the human use of cacao fruit may go back as far as 15,000 years. It originates from South America, and the first civilization that is considered to have cultivated cacao was the Olmecs of Mexico. The Mayans learned about cacao from the Olmecs and made it a central part of their civilization. There is much archaeological evidence of pottery and wall carvings, some of their rulers were named after cacao, and they even had cacao gods. As well as imbibing cacao, they used it in coming-of-age rituals and as a sacred offering in religious ceremonies. The Aztec civilization followed that of the Mayans, and they too conferred great prestige on the cacao pod. The beans were so revered by the Mayans and Aztecs that they used them as currency. In the Aztec city of Texcoco, the city budget was as much as 32,000 beans a day! One fish was worth three cacao beans, one avocado was worth one cacao bean, a canoe was one hundred beans. Incredibly, they continued to be used as currency in Mexico until 1887. It was the Spanish explorer Hernan Cortes, who conquered Mexico in the sixteenth century, who brought cacao to Europe. Cortes described cacao as “the divine drink which builds up resistance and fights fatigue. A cup of this precious drink permits a man to walk for a whole day without food.” Christopher Columbus also recorded coming across it on his travels. Carl von Linnaeus, the eighteenth-century Swedish scientist, gave the tree its Latin name, theobroma cacao, “cacao, the food of the gods.” Now, over two-thirds of the world’s cacao is grown in Africa, mainly on the Cote d’Ivoire.
In its raw, untampered-with state, the cacao bean is one of the most nutrient-dense foods known to man. It contains over 300 chemical compounds, making it one of the most complex and nutritionally significant foods available to us. It is a premium source of minerals, vitamins, antioxidants, protein and healthy fats.
Minerals
Cacao is one of the very best known dietary sources of magnesium and sulphur. Magnesium is an essential mineral in which most of us are deficient. Like calcium, it is important for building strong bones, and assists in converting EFAs in the body. It provides essential support for the heart, helps relieve premenstrual tension, and is a natural laxative. It is an excellent source of sulphur, known as the beauty mineral because it is so beneficial for the hair, eyes, skin and teeth. Cacao also contains significant amounts of iron, phosphorous, and the B vitamin group.
Antioxidants
Cacao contains 10% antioxidant flavonols, nearly twice the amount found in red wine and three times that found in green tea. The antioxidants in cacao are easily absorbable by the body, and have been shown to assist in cardiovascular health, and help prevent against cancer. The ORAC score is the official U.S. measurement for antioxidant levels in food. The ORAC score for raw cacao powder is virtually off the scale—995 units per gram, at least seven times more than that of normal dark chocolate.
Neurotransmitters
Neurotransmitters are chemicals which transmit nerve impulses across a synapse, i.e. they effect chemical reactions in the brain. Cacao is home to the neurotransmitter anandamide, known as “the bliss chemical,” an endogenous cannabinoid naturally found in the human brain. Cacao is the only food other than cannabis to contain cannabinoids. Cacao also contains anandamide inhibitors, which means that our bodies’ abilities to break down anandamide is decreased, and so the blissed-out feeling lasts longer. Cacao also contains significant amounts of tryptophan, an essential amino acid which the brain uses to make the neurotransmitter serotonin. Serotonin is known for the feelings of euphoria it creates; the dance-drug Ecstacy causes large amounts of serotonin to be released in the brain.
Phenylethylamine
PEA is known as “the molecule of joy,” and only present in two foods, chocolate and blue-green algae. It is the chemical produced in the brain when we are fully happy and immersed in the moment, especially when involved in a creative act like writing or painting, dancing or making music. PEA is also very good for the brain, and improves brain function. When I take the PEA extract Blue Manna, I feel more focused, alert and intelligent. Physically, it promotes healthy joints and tissues. And if all that wasn’t enough, PEA also affects the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine, which increase mental positivity. It is the presence of PEA which largely seems to account for the common folklore wisdom that chocolate makes a good substitution for sex, as we get the same increased levels of PEA when we are in love. “Some 50% of women reportedly claim to prefer chocolate to sex, though this response may depend on the attributes of the interviewer.” (chocolate.org)
Aphrodisiacs
A box of chocolates is the most popular gift to give on Valentine’s day. As well as the loved-up feelings we get from the PEA in chocolate, the neurotransmitters affected by chocolate make us feel happy and alert, and the minerals magnesium and sulphur both loosen the muscles and make us more relaxed. On top of that, cacao is one of the best dietary sources of arginine, an amino acid also known as nature’s Viagra. Arginine increases blood flow to the heart and the genitals, increasing arousal and improving sexual appetite.
MAO Inhibitors
Cacao contains monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) which inhibit monoamine oxidase enzymes (MAOs). This has the effect of increasing the levels of neurotransmitters in the body, and having an antidepressant
