Eat a Tabelspoon a day of cacoa powder? - Would that make sense?!
Question: Research has shown that chocolate is a powerful antioxidant and that it can help lower blood pressure.
But everyone always point out that if you are going to eat bars it has to be dark chocolate, like 80% or higher to maxamize the cocoa and minimize the sugar and dairy fat found in milk chocolate (plus milk chocolate sukks anyways)
But what about skipping the middleman entirely, it would be kind of chalky but no less wierd than taking creatine, fish oil or wheatgrass.
Answers: Research has shown that chocolate is a powerful antioxidant and that it can help lower blood pressure.
But everyone always point out that if you are going to eat bars it has to be dark chocolate, like 80% or higher to maxamize the cocoa and minimize the sugar and dairy fat found in milk chocolate (plus milk chocolate sukks anyways)
But what about skipping the middleman entirely, it would be kind of chalky but no less wierd than taking creatine, fish oil or wheatgrass.
You can get raw, organic cocao nibs from sunfoods- all the good with none of the bad. I think it would be fine as long, of course, as you are eating a basically balanced diet anyway. Adding supplements to a bad diet is like putting curtains up when the house has burned down.
The trouble with things like vitamins and minerals in your body is that everything works in a combination.
For instance, if you take a calcium supplement without a magnesium supplement (and you are deficient in either or both), one won't absorb properly with out the other. If you don't have enough Vitamin C (I think - it's late at night so don't quote me on that one - but it's one of the other vits), then neither of them will absorb properly either.
While having a tablespoon of cacoa powder* everyday may be slightly beneficial due to it's individual anti-oxidant properties, according to scientific research you'd be better off getting a good quality all round supplement that delivers you everything you need in the correct quantites so that things absorb the way they are supposed to.
*Something else to be aware of is the fact that if you buy cacoa powder off your supermarket shelf, that it is often very highly processed, which means that the anti-oxidants may have been lost in that process anyway.
At the end of the day, we'd all love chocolate to be a health food - but how many healthy elderly people put their longevity down to choc?? And how many people that eat loads of chocolate are really very healthy?
Good Luck!
yeah that would be better than chocolate if you can get it down especially if its raw or really good quality cocoa
I put a tablespoon of cocoa in my postworkout shake. Goes down almost without notice. Actually makes the choc shakes taste a little richer. Then i eat a sensible and balanced meal within half an hour.