Health Benefits of Cacao & Dark Chocolate

I already mention on the health supplements page that there are definitely supplements to invest in before healthy chocolate. But since many of us want to eat chocolate anyway, it's worthwhile to find the type that will add to our health rather than take from it.

Likewise, if you really wanted the optimal health benefits of "chocolate," you'd go right back to the source -- raw cacao. No, this isn't chocolate. But all chocolate is made from cacao. And this is what gives chocolate its healthy qualities. (Cacao nibs are shelled cacao beans, and are used to produced cocoa liquor. While you wouldn't eat the whole bean, many people -- including yours truly -- eat cacao nibs.)

Cacao is loaded with magnesium -- in fact, it may be the richest food source of magnesium available. This is great for muscles and nerves, the heart, the immune system, the bones, and much more. It helps to regulate blood sugar and blood pressure, and is otherwise involved in hundreds of biological functions. It is also the #1 deficiency among macro minerals in the average American diet. This makes cacao an important nutritional supplement.

Cacao also contain a good deal of sulfur, as well as calcium, zinc, iron, copper, and potassium. And famously, it is the ONLY source of theobromine, which is the active ingredient in cacao and in chocolate and gives them their stimulant quality. (Contrary to popular belief, there is probably NO caffeine in cacao, and none in chocolate unless it comes from another source. However, this is still under debate.)

Perhaps the most marketed quality of cacao these days, it offers powerful antioxidants, with more flavanoids than red wine, green tea, or blueberries. This is what gives chocolate -- especially dark chocolate -- its high ORAC score. (ORAC stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. Free radicals cause all sorts of damage to the body. Antioxidants are able to "absorb" or eliminate free radicals, so getting plenty of them is important. More about this on the ORAC page.)

Best of all, compared to many of the nutritional supplements available today, cacao nibs are not expensive. You can get them for about $1 per ounce. By comparison, healthy chocolate typically costs about $3 to $5 per ounce and is a modified food, whereas raw cacao nibs are straight from nature. (But the healthy chocolate I recommend has a secret to it, and it will feel MUCH cheaper than $1 per ounce.)

Having said that, cacao is bitter, and a lot of people would have a hard time eating it directly. So again, most of us will turn to chocolate, and the goal is to get the healthiest kind.

All dark chocolate will provide the same health benefits as cacao (i.e., antioxidants, magnesium, and other nutrients), but not to the same degree. At the same time, many companies will add other ingredients to the dark chocolate to provide additional health benefits, and that is certainly the case with the chocolate that I recommend. More on that within my reviews of specific products.

Now that we've covered the overall health benefits of cacao and dark chocolate, let's take a more specific look at ORAC scores. This is important to understand because this feature is touted by so many health supplements, and we need to put it in its proper perspective.