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Eat Organic Raw Cacao Beans: They Are Far Better Than Ordinary Chocolate!

By: Toshi Umekoji

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Recently, dark chocolate is truly getting popular. The dark chocolate used to be sold only at chocolate speciality stores or health food markets, but these days, you can find it at any supermarket or corner store. This is because recent scientific research has indicated that dark chocolate may help to prevent heart problems, cancers, and other potential health problems. Since we were taught that consuming chocolates was bad for our health, this was great news!

Well, this is not quit true. We often recall only the positive details and ignore the negative points when we find "great" facts. It is true that cacao beans, from which all chocolate is made, contain very high dose of anti-oxidants, vitamins, and minerals, and are very high in valuable amino acids. It is also true that dark chocolate is much better than milk chocolate, since milk protein breaks down some of the most beneficial chemicals in the chocolate.

However, this is only the bright side of the story. Chocolate still delivers a high amount of saturated fat and is very high in calories. Also, if you are not eating organic chocolates, you may be ingesting tons of pesticides and fungicides, etc. Not only that, if they are not organically cultivated, the cacao beans cannot draw up enough minerals and, as a result, the chocolate does not have the useful amounts of minerals as it was advocated. Even if the cacao beans contained enough anti-oxidants and beneficial amino acids when they were picked, it is likely that they may be broken down when they were heated up in the process of making the chocolate. Oh, well; that old saying of "if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is" applies here, too.

However, there is still a way to gain most of the health benefits of cacao; eat raw organic cacao beans! You can purchase cacaos at any health food store. Cacaos look like almonds, but if you peel off the skins, you will find the dark, "chocolate"-color bean inside. Some people actually eat the bean fresh, just like this, and love the taste. I would say that it is more of an acquired taste, but it could be addictive since it can actually give you a natural high (remember cacao beans contain a high dose of caffeine, too). If you do not like to eat the skins and you do not like to have to peel the beans, you can also purchase cacao nibs, which are just the same as the raw bean, but with skin removed and the bean crushed into smaller pieces.

Although cacao beans and cacao nibs have that great chocolate taste, you should see them as a slightly different kind of food. When we think of chocolate, we often link it with a smooth and silky texture. Unfortunately, cacao beans and cacao nibs do not deliver you that silky-smooth pleasure -- they remain in your mouth as bitter grit-like bits. What a cacao bean enthusiast can do is to chew one bean for a long time so that it gets smoother. This is actually good since saliva makes the cacao bean's elements much easier to digest in the guts. And yes, this means you get more reward from the bean.

If you really cannot handle the grit-like consistency you get from chewing the whole bean, then you can make a cacao paste using a grinder, and mix it with something---with hot water to make a chocolate drink, for example. You can also try combining with honey to make a ganache (without milk!), or with soy ice cream to make chocolate ice "cream."

In any case, try the cacao beans. You may find that you get the same enjoyment from one cacao bean as you get from eating a whole chocolate bar!

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

Tetsu Takahashiloves chocolate, especially organic dark chocolate truffles. He is always looking for new organic dark chocolate, and experimenting with new chocolate recipes made with raw cacao beans. You can find his favorite organic chocolate truffles at: www.GourmetOrganicChocolateTruffle.com. If you are looking for Valentine gifts, you may also want to check: www.squidoo.com/ValentinesIdeas for a great organic chocolate truffle gift idea.

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