If eaten with absolutely ZERO sugar, just the powder.
I hear it’s a great source of magnesium and other minerals.
Cocoa is hella hydrophobic, so I wouldn’t recommend eating a spoonful because it could choke you like cinnamon. I’m sure you thought of this, but I felt like I had to say it in case someone hadn’t considered that.
I put a tablespoon raw cocoa in my banana smoothie every morning. So technically not zero sugar but no added sugar. I’ve done this about 5-6 days week for the last 7 years. So far I’m still kicking.
Cocoa powder is great! a great source of magnesium!
However, things to note, are that it does contain caffeine. And there is the possibility it contains high levels of lead and cadmium. Unfortunately this is the effect of pollution around soil in which they are grown, and that cocoa beans absorb a lot of heavy metals as they grow.
So perhaps don’t have tonnes of it daily!
It’s cacao powder - not sure what’s to debate about this? Why is ‘zero’ in bold and caps? What’s the problem with sweetened cacao?
Not trying to be a jerk…my recommendation is to not harp on this kind of stuff though. Cacao powder is cacao powder. It’s not healthy, or unhealthy. Not sure I’d consider it a “good” idea, but certainly not a “bad” one either. Both are false dichotomies.
I melt a bit off coconut oil then I add cacao powder and honey or maple syrup then put it in the freezer so it’s hard and it’s like homemade cheap chocolate. Sugars are not unhealthy but they need to be balanced by minerals…
In stead of the powder you can get the cacao nibs which is the closest you can get to the cacao bean. High in nutrients and antioxidants. But if your aim is also weight loss: be careful as cacao is pretty high in calories.
If you can stand the bitterness and dryness when swallowing, it is ok to eat small amounts. It is considered a super food. If you eat too much your body will simply pass it through and your stool will be really black colored.
Probably the best course is to mix a teaspoon into yogurt or cream cheese, and if you drink milk you can mix some in that also.
Eating it not so good idea, but drinking it. It is called “hot chocolate”. Just add 15g of de-oiled cocoa powder with hot water and add some black pepper. Youll get used to it not having any sugar. You can add a little bit of milk, but that decreases the health benefits of it dramatically because milk binds the healthy bitter compounds (very potent antioxidants) and the body cant absorb them anymore.
You can look on Amazon for example, but make sure it is strong de-oiled cocoa powder. Then it should have these kinds of nutrients:
https://i.imgur.com/sCDDDch.png
100g should have around these values if it’s de-oiled cocoa powder
\~ 10-11g fat
\~ 15g carbs and 1g sugar
\~ 35g fiber (good!)
\~ 30g protein (good!)
\~ 500mg magnesium
\~ 3g potassium
\~ 30mg iron
\~ 4mg copper
\~ 4mg mangan
So if you calculate it down to around 15g per cup of hot cocoa, you can see it is a very healthy drink, not that much for magnesium, but for copper, iron, mangan, potassium, fiber and protein.
You can also add 3g Glycine for example for a bit of sweetness.
It has all the benefits of dark chocolate. It may lose some of the nutrients of cacao powder but the trade in gf is that it’s much less acidic. I have 6g in 20 oz of coffee a few times a day. It also adds some extra caffeine and caffeine like substances.
Unsweetened cocoa powder is a good source of magnesium and great for anti-inflammation. However, many of the US manufacturers have contaminants of lead and cadmium. I recommend searching on consumerlab.com for the lowest contaminated brands.
