It’s Easter, so we’re all about that chocolate! That chocolate… that chocolate… no sugar! Ok, that was supposed to be in the tune to ‘All That Base’ but it had a few too many syllables! Anyway! One scroll through our sweet section on our blog and you’ll see we love chocolate! What may look like a totally drool worthy and disgustingly unhealthy treat is actually quite the opposite. When we make sweet treats, we make sure they’re full of good stuff! Good fats, super foods and natural sweeteners.
We do like to provide this disclaimer from time to time, just so you don’t make the same mistakes we did: they’re still treats and we don’t recommend you eat them every day and with every meal!
So how do we get that super amazing chocolate flavour we all love, minus the nasty, processed ingredients regular chocolate is full of? This is where we say HELLO to raw cacao powder, one of our all-time favourite ingredients. Pronounced ca-kow and not to be mixed up with regular cocoa! And a couple of letters aren’t the only difference when it comes to these two ingredients. Get our favourite 30 paleo chocolate recipes here!
From our friends over at Food Matters:
Cacao: refers to the plant, a small evergreen tree of the species Theobroma cacao, cultivated for its seeds, also known as raw cacao beans or raw cacao powder.
Cocoa: refers to the powder made from roasted, husked and ground cacao seeds, from which most of the fat has been removed.
SO! You can see that there’s a big difference here. Raw cacao is unprocessed and natural, whereas cocoa is highly processed and refined. Regular chocolate bars and Easter eggs are made from cocoa with added sugar, chemicals and fillers: the ingredients we want to steer clear of when it comes to any time of the year (not just Easter!).
But do not stress! Raw cacao is the way to go, and you’ll be even more excited to try out this chocolatey super duper food when you hear the benefits!
Raw cacao…
- is high in antioxidants (more than blueberries, goji berries and acai!)
- is high in minerals like magnesium and iron
- is an anti-inflammatory
- reduces stress
- helps liver function
- lowers risk of Alzheimer’s
- reduces blood pressure
- minimises the risk of cardio vascular disease and stroke
- elevates the mood
So should we all eat cacao? We say a big HECK YES! We told you it was super! This Easter we’ll be whipping up (several) batches of our raw chocolate, healthy hot cross buns and some of our new spiced muffins! PLUS we’ve done a huge search of the ENTIRE internet… seriously we went down an internet worm hole (spent 3 hours there) of healthy chocolate recipes and found 30 of the BEST paleo chocolate recipes ever! Yay and YUM!
Always merrymaking,
Emma + Carla