Raw cacao---dark chocolate benefit

The health benefits of chocolate were discovered by the Aztecs, a Mexican empire that flourished in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries.
                                             Happy Holiday TREAT !

                         

Why i love the taste of dark chocolate for the holiday and the smell of coffee house? It is our favorite holiday/yule delight because Dark chocolate is great for calming troubled minds. I love dark chocolate when it is hot, sweet or laced with coconut. Raw Cacao in dark chocolate contains copper, manganese, zinc, sulphur, and is rich in B -vitamins that includes niacin.

Eating a delicious piece of chocolate may help reduce stress levels ; it works by stimulating  the production of endorphin that may give rise to a happy feeling.   Eating dark chocolate not only relaxes but also helps blood circulation thereby decreasing the risk posed by innumerable cardiovascular diseases.  It also boosts the functioning of endothelial cells which line the blood cells.
 The flavonoids called Catechins and Epicatechins found in raw cacao used in making Dark chocolate has been known to help boost the human body immune system thereby helping prevents chronic illness.
 The flavonoids compounds in dark chocolate or organic cocao nibs are helpful in treating anemic patients lacking dietary nutrients.
Dark chocolate is a potent source for antioxidant. The anti-oxidants present in dark chocolate helps fight against pre mature aging caused by free radicals. Its cocoa content, mineral sources and Gallic acid provide protection against LDL oxidation. Dark chocolate also contain serotonin which help relieve depression.


Solay Wellness says Raw Cacao

•     Lower blood pressure
•     Increases energy, alertness, creativity, and improves mood.
•     Contains very little caffeine, raw organic chocolate is a major source of magnesium which helps your heart.
•     Rich in Flavonoids which has a cancer-fighting antioxidant result
•     Promotes healthy blood flow thereby reducing the risk of strokes, blood clots, and heart attacks
•     Rich in Antioxidants thereby decreasing damaging free radicals
•     Increased Longevity: Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health found that those who eat chocolate up to three times each month live almost a year longer than those who overindulge or eat junk food.
•     Cocoa is reported to help brain function.  The magnesium is essential for maintaining brain function.  Raw chocolate is also composed of brain functioning elements such as tryptophan and anandamide
•     Recently, the Theobromine in cocoa has been noted as calming the coughing reflex thereby helping to stop coughing.
•     Can reduce cholesterol by 5-10 percent
•     Decreases menopause and PMS symptoms
•     Helps control appetite and supports weight loss.

We recommend Organic Raw Chocolate because it is a healthy super-food that is full of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Raw chocolate means that the cacao has not been heated or processed allowing it to preserve all of its rich nutrients. Organic chocolate means that there have been no chemicals, fillers, and preservatives used in the production of the chocolate.
Processed chocolate that includes dairy, sugar, and chemicals blocks the antioxidant and health benefits. Processed chocolate also contains fat, wax, fillers, and preservatives. But because there is no artificial sugar or any harmful fillers in this raw organic chocolate it is a great treat for children and for your immune.

Raw organic COCOA Nibs from VIVAPURA

Why raw home juiced apples are better than shelf Apple juice for your health.

Fresh apple is an ideal healthy snack. It’s easy to carry, flavorful, filling, and low in calories; a 5oz (140-g) piece of fruit has only 90 calories. Apples can be eaten fresh or cooked, baked into pies, crisps, tarts, used as stuffing’s, jelly, apple butter and sauce.  

Apples contain a good dose of pectin, the soluble fiber that thickens jellies and helps lower artery-damaging LDL blood cholesterol levels. Apples contain a mix of antioxidants like flavonoids such as quercetin, prevent LDL Cholesterol from being oxidized to a more dangerous form. Applesauce is pleasant-tasting and easily digested; naturopathic doctors recommend it as an early baby food. Apples have long been called nature’s tooth brush; while they don’t actually cleanse the teeth, they still enhance dental hygiene. Biting and chewing an apple stimulates the gums, and the sweetness of the apple promotes an increased flow of saliva, which reduces tooth decay by lowering the levels of bacteria in the mouth.

If you want a more concentrated type or have cavities, choose dried apples they are a more concentrated source of energy than the fresh form and dried apples are less likely to promote cavities than other dried fruits. Dried apples contain good amounts of fiber and a small amount of iron, but most nutrients are lost in the drying process. 

Apple juice has been the icon of a healthy beverage like the saying goes an apple a day keeps the doctor away but not after the apples have been grown with pesticides and fed with artificial fertilizers, then are harvested and trucked to a nearby processing plant, where they are run through a trough of chlorinated water to wash off dirt, pesticides residues, and other undesirables. Some plants also run the apples through a bath of carnauba wax (also found in car wax) and preservatives. Before the apples become juice, they are sometimes peeled by running them through a “bath’ of hot sodium hydroxide (lye), which penetrates beneath the skin and loosens it from the pulp. High velocity jets of cold water then blast off the skin, and a machine punches out the cores. The peeled, cored apples are crushed in a high-pressure juicer. To keep the juice from turning too dark, some processors add sulfating agents, which inhibit the browning enzyme, then it is pasteurized with heat (from 200 to 400 degrees for four or five seconds) to kill any bacteria that might be present, which also reduces the vitamin content. Hardly is it the same as biting into crunchy organically grown apple or running the apple through your juicer at home.

 

Take a look at another example common where today's conventional industrial Agribusiness grow unhealthy and toxic plants and most of these are sent to factory to be processed. There they are stripped of many of their nutrients, bleached, colored, flavored, preserved, and packaged with attractive labels; if you buy peas in a can, 30 percent of the vitamins have been lost in cooking at the canning plant, and 25 percent have been lost in the sterilization process; 27 percent are discarded with the cooking liquid, and 12 percent are lost when you heat the peas after you open the can. What’s left? Squashy tasteless little green balls that have only 6 percent of their nutritional value left; Frozen peas, after processing and cooking, are left with about 17 percent of the original vitamins. White flour loses up to ninety percent of its nutrients by milling, and only six nutrients are artificially added to enrich it. As more research suggest that a primary contributing factor to many of our modern diseases is our eating of processed, low-fiber, low nutritious foods. Yet such processed foods are normally assumed to be a safe and nutritious as fresh, whole foods. 

 Before 1900, degenerative illnesses like cancer and heart disease were relatively rare. Now heart disease is the leading cause of death in most developed countries, and cancer hits one out of every three people during their lifetime. Together, cancer and heart disease cause 50 percent of all deaths in this country.   

Obesity was a problem that generally affected only the wealthy in 18^th century Europe, but today half of our population is overweight to some degree. 

Food also loses nutrition when it is stored. So if you are going for apples or apple juice, I do recommend you eat raw organic apples or juice your own organic apples using your juicer at home or buy an organic apple juice that isn’t pasteurized or containing sulfite. Always remember that eating apples provides antioxidant and anticancer nutrients for the body. 

Note: Studies of other cultures that eat traditional or raw, whole, unrefined, unprocessed foods show a remarkable lack of illness. Study after study has found that people who switch from their native diet to a western refined one gradually develop western degenerative diseases. 

Happy pills in a jar for this season---Dark Chocolate

Its winter and the weather is chilly cold, recession is knocking at our door and we are worried about what gifts to send and a little depressed from stress, which can cause free radical build up and damage to our bodies. (Free radicals are highly charged atoms that are missing one electron, making them unstable. They enter our body through sunlight, poor diet, use of alcohol, tobacco, airborne chemicals, and stress; they steal an electron in order to gain electron stability. Free radicals target fatty acids, cell membranes which are rich in phospholipids, DNA, and proteins and in the process cellular activities are replaced by chaos of electron swapping, which eventually disrupts cell function. Free radicals are the primary factors in aging and inflammation because they produce random radical change and disrupt normal metabolic processes, over time leading to disease). So what can we do to reduce stress---bring some joy and Santa moments to our life this candy season; we can make time for candies--chocolates of course. Dark chocolate are little bitter, sweet and high antioxidant snacks that brings on pleasurable feelings because it releases natural feel-good chemicals called endorphins in your brain.

Dark Chocolate is a psychoactive food. It is made from the seeds of the tropical cacao tree, Theobroma cacao. The cacao tree was named by the 17th century Swedish naturalist, Linnaeus. The Greek term theobroma means literally "food of the gods". Dark chocolate made of cocoa bean from the plant (Theobroma cacao) is a rich source of flavonoids, rich in cell-protecting antioxidants.

                                          

                                         Other benefits of Dark chocolate:

• Dark chocolates are highly loaded with epicatechin- an active member of a group of compounds called plant flavoniods. Epicatechin may improve blood flow and can potentially improve the health of the heart. 
• Dark chocolates have antioxidant properties that are effective against aging caused by oxidative stress, inhibition of platelet activity, and activation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase due to its flavonoids content. 
• Flavoniods in dark chocolate prevents cholesterol from gathering in blood vessels, reduces the risk of blood clots, and slows down the immune responses that lead to clogged arteries. 
• Dark chocolate was found to reduce blood pressure, improve blood flow and prevent plague formation in the arteries and had mild anti-clotting effects

• Dark chocolate has potential cancer-fighting properties---immune boosting.

• Dark chocolates improve cognitive function.

• Pure dark chocolate improves endothelial function and increases plasma epicatechin concentrations that aids wound healing.

• Pure cocoa can help elevate insomnia because it’s relaxing and can put you to sleep—you tend to dream more when you drink pure cocoa by nettle and eat dark chocolate! 

   Send an antioxidant gift to a friend ---organic dark cacao chocolate truffles as a Santa gift.