Chocolate contains cocoa which has many health benefits. Cocoa contains a large amount of antioxidants, keeps high blood pressure down, and reduces the blood’s ability to clot. This in turn reduces the risk of stroke and heart attacks. The darker the chocolate with the largest percentage of cocoa is the best. This kind of chocolate is the fine, expensive variety and consists of cocoa butter, cocoa powder and a sweetener, nothing else. It is delicate in that it is heat-sensitive and thus melts easily.
Most chocolate you find in the grocery store unfortunately is not pure chocolate, it is merely ‘chocolate flavored’. As we have seen real chocolate contains just cocoa powder, cocoa butter and a sweetener. The cheaper chocolate might contain a little cocoa powder but the rest of the ingredients are cheap ‘fillers’ like palm oil, canola oil and paraffin wax. The latter is added to increase the shelf life and to make it more resistant to heat.
Both palm oil* and canola oil that are used in the chocolate industry are processed oils and have terrible effects on our health. And what about paraffin? It is a petroleum bi-product and can lead to poisoning. Liquid paraffin is kerosene, the stuff that stoves are lit with.
Before reaching for that bar of chocolate think about what you are putting in your system.
Glow Naturally!
*Palm oil production is now one of the world’s leading causes of rain forest destruction.
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