There is also con-
troversy surrounding the high amount of lead found in some cocoa products. Lead is a heavy metal that can cause damage to the body when ingest- ed in almost any amount. The evidence
Some experts are even saying the health-giving properties of cocoa will potentially benefit public health equal to or more than antibiotics and anesthesia.
seems to point to the manufacturing pro- cess of raw cocoa as the source of lead. An October 2005 study in Environmental Health Perspectives shows that the cocoa bean itself has very little lead; in fact, it has one of the lowest levels of lead of any natural food. There are insignificant amounts of lead found in raw beans but significant amounts found in some choco- late products, leading one to conclude the manufacturing process is the culprit. Un- fortunately, no one is exactly sure where all the lead is coming from. To be safe and promote maximal health benefits and to prevent potential lead exposure, choose raw organic cocoa. You can also call your favorite chocolate company and ask about their policies for testing heavy metals in their products.
Constituents in Cocoa What is it about raw organic cocoa
powder that makes it such a powerful medicinal food? For starters, is it is packed full of antioxidant-rich phytonutrients. Antioxidants help to quell the fire of free radicals our bodies generate and are ex- posed to every day. One way to measure the antioxidant potential of a food is by its ORAC value. ORAC is the acronym for “Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity” and is a measure of the potential antioxi- dant capacity of a food. In theory, the higher the ORAC value, the higher the concentration of antioxidants present in a food. Organic raw cocoa has the highest ORAC value of any food. The US Depart- ment of Agriculture/Journal of the Ameri- can Chemical Society has released data on high ORAC value foods per 100 grams compared to unprocessed raw cocoa (28,000): dark chocolate (13,210), prunes (5,770), blueberries (2,400), kale (1,770) and broccoli (890). According to the USDA, the average American gets 1200 ORAC value/day in their diet. They go on further to say that Americans should strive to get between 3000-5000 ORAC value/ day. One tablespoon of cocoa powder
Natural Triad Magazine DECEMBER 2011 21
which is about 5g has an approximate ORAC value of 1400, which gives you almost half of what you need. The phytonutrients
that give raw cocoa powder its high anti- oxidant value are a group of compounds
called polyphenols or more specifically flavonoids. Cocoa has more flavonoids than any known food. Two flavonoids in particular, catechin and epicatchin, are found in extremely high amounts in cocoa powder and have copious amounts of re- search supporting their health benefits. These two flavonoids along with hundreds of other known phytochemicals in cocoa appear to prevent and even treat some of today’s most devastating diseases. Interest- ingly, this myriad of flavonoids in cocoa appears to be absorbed intact into the human blood stream (Ameri- can Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Nov 2002) which allow them to exert their medicinal power on the body. Many Americans
To be safe and promote maximal health benefits and to prevent
potential lead exposure, choose raw organic cocoa.
are deficient in the minerals copper and magnesium, both of which are found in cocoa. Cocoa contains about 0.8 mg of copper per 100 g and is therefore a great food source of copper. Copper has many uses in the body, including the oxygen- ation of red blood cells and aiding in cel- lular energy production. Cocoa also has the highest amount of magnesium of any known food source, approximately131 mg per 100 g of cocoa. This mineral, which plays a significant role in cocoa’s health giving properties, is required by over 300 hundred enzymes in the body and is cru- cial for cardiovascular health, optimal blood pressure and protein synthesis. Cocoa and chocolate have the reputa- tion of making people euphoric and happy. This is probably why chocolate is the gift of choice on Valentine’s Day. There is a wide array of chemicals in cocoa that cause euphoria, including phenyethlamine (PEA), serotonin, tyra- mine and anandamide. One of the most well- known is pheny- ethlamine (PEA) which helps the body release its own opium-like compounds, called the endorphins, and also
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