If you’ve been looking for an excuse to hit that vending

machine and grab a candy bar which  has chocolate in

it….now it’s actually healthy, chocolate? Hurray! WRONG.

 Well, mostly wrong: what’s healthy is the cacao bean,

minimally processed. This amazing, hedonistic bean is one of

the world’s longest-revered foods (think ‘time of the

Aztecs’ old) and has in recent years been shown to be a

veritable powerhouse of cognitive enhancement, mood and

bliss-enhancement (thanks in part to the Theobromine in

cacao), antioxidants, flavonoids, catechins and many other

brain & body-enhancing elements. In fact, chocolate has been

very recently cited by some top health professionals and

researchers to be THE single most exciting health food, and

as more research continues to pour in, the more true this

appears to be.

How is this possible, something that only recently was

thought of as an unhealthy, dangerous, guilty indulgence…a

sign of dietary decadence, now being hailed as beneficial to

everything from brain health to skin elasticity to

cardiovascular health to anti-cancer and pretty much

everything in between?

It’s simple: chocolate does not equal cacao bean, nor

vice-versa; most candy and chocolate bars contain not only

low levels of cacao bean compared to other unhealthy

ingredients such as sugars, milk fat, artificial flavorings

and so on, but the quality and processing of the cacao used

in these products is often of low health benefits due to

everything from alkalization (e.g. “Dutch process cocoa”) to

refining and processing and over-roasting the healthy

elements right out of the beans.

So if you want the real stuff, the best bet is to either

use 100% organic non-alkalized cocoa powder from a

high-quality maker who minimally processes the cocoa to

ensure that the health properties are retained, or, second

best, choose only high cacao percentage dark chocolate bars

(typically at least 75% cacao content or higher, but we

suggest 85% or higher), also from a high-quality provider.

And, of course, a small piece only!…but that’s much

easier to control thwn with milk chocolate…

We’ve found it easiest to just mix a large spoonful of 100%

organic cocoa powder with a bit of espresso, organic

 unsweetened soy milk and some cinnamon,

even a sprinkle of cayenne red pepper…yes, cayenne

pepper!) in the morning (and sometimes again in the

afternoon) to make a drink not unlike what the ancient

Aztecs used to make: it’s one tasty, brain & body-fueling

drink that gives you your pure cacao bean dose without the

sugars and milk fat, you get your protein from the soy milk,

brain-enhancing (and blood sugar-stabilizing) cinnamon, a

little brain-enhancing caffeine from the espresso and

theobromine (plus more) from the chocolate, and a digestion,

brain-enhancing and respiratory-enhancing kick from the

cayenne pepper. No sweetener needed (sweet is overrated

these days…but we’ll save that topic for another

BrainReady feature).

In summary, yes: chocolate is a brain health food. Or more

specifically, the cacao bean is a true brain health and body

health food. And worth considering adding to your diet

(barring any allergies to chocolate or contraindications, of

course).