Cacao Beans The Benefits Of Eating Chocolate

Did you know that chocolate is made from cacao beans? Chocolate is great and we all love it, but do you really know how beneficial chocolate can be for you and how bad it can be if you eat the wrong kind.

Way back, in Aztec times, cacao beans were gathered and were deemed sacred and associated with fertility and love. Cacao beans were thought as food for the gods and were used for trading.

Now, why is it called Cacao and not cocoa? A name we all know. Raw cacao is the unprocessed cacao bean used to make cocoa powder and thence the modern day chocolate. Cocoa powder is the processed cacao bean and a lot of the goodness and natural fats are taken out of it.

The Cacao beans are derived from a tree and contain powerful antioxidants and are known to help reduce deadly free radicals from your body. It is a fact that Cacao beans have the highest ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) antioxidant rating per 100g, miles in front of ‘Acai’ berries or ‘Goji’ berries.

Raw cacao beans have proved to be effective in promoting mental well being through the production of endorphins. It also acts as an anti-depressant by raising serotonin levels. Cacao beans are a complete food. In fact, cacao is the #1 source for magnesium, used in hundreds of other metabolic processes.

Cacao beans are a rich source of:

* Iron – which is a compound that fights anemia

* Zinc – Helps to strengthen the Immune System

* Vitamin C – Has well known medicinal properties

* Fiber – Cleans up the digestive system

* Cardiovascular cleansing compounds that reduces the risk of blood clotting

* Chromium – Helps to balance your blood sugar levels

* Manganese – Allows the formation of haemoglobin

So what is not quite right with the chocolate we eat today! It’s the enormous amount of white refined sugar and pasteurized homogenized milk that is added to it. White sugar is a harsh carbohydrate that acts as a drug. This causes your hormone levels go to high levels. Pasteurized homogenized milk comes from thousands of cows. Some of them sick and most of them treated with antibiotics and growth hormones.

But did you know that there is a better way of obtaining chocolate a way that uses raw cacao beans. You can buy it and even make you own chocolate. This is a chocolate that’s really healthy and actually melts pounds off your body and causes rapid fat loss.

By: W. Staton

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You can find out more about Cacao Beans on the authors blog as well as tips and articles on other aspects of losing weight visit his blog at "Fastest Way to Lose Weight"