I am knee-deep in cacao’s pharmacology; past page 100 in the 700 page ‘The Secret Life of Chocolate’. And I’m beginning to see that, wisely applied, cacao is truly a medicine.
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‘Wisely applied’ is something we have strayed a *long* way from.
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The West loves chocolate with milk. But milk binds to the polyphenols in cacao, stopping their absorption.
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Sugar increases their absorption *but* simple sugars suppress immunity after consumption. Complex carbohydrates, on the other hand, break down slowly, helping our body take on the polyphenols whilst not doing the damage associated with simple sugar.
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And Ancestral Wisdom knew this: the Mesoamericans took their cacao in drinks with maize and minimal added sugar.
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I couldn’t research without playing! I’ve made another batch of 100% cacao chocolates. This time I roasted the beans longer and lower than generally suggested and I made half the batch with cacao butter, half the batch with coconut oil. Taste-testing today :-)
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Check my story today for chocolate-filled videos and pictures.