Chocolate, one of the many pleasures in life, is for many, very hard to resist. The great news is that dark chocolate is not only pleasurable for your taste buds but it holds useful properties for improving your health. Cacao is one of the key ingredients in dark chocolate and it is made from cacao beans that come from the cacao tree. Cacao benefits shown in studies demonstrate its ability to widen your blood vessels. This lowers your blood pressure and decreases your chance of a blood clot. Studies also show that eating chocolate can increase your brain's ability to concentrate, helping you to focus on whatever you may be doing. People who eat chocolate containing 60 percent cacao, can improve their level of alertness and attentiveness. This is a possible healthy alternative to energy drinks. For some people, not all, the much sweeter taste of milk chocolate is preferred (compared to the more bitter and raw taste of dark chocolate - which is high in cacao content). This being said, the benefits of cacao rich dark chocolate are well documented and should not be ignored. All it takes is acquiring the bitter taste of dark chocolate gradually and eventually enjoying the unique unsweetened taste. You might end up surprising yourself! Chocolate can be a powerful stimulant, helping you bring your brain back to life in your midday slump at work. A study was done taking images of the brain immediately after having some dark chocolate. It showed both the effects of increasing attention and lowering blood pressure. They also found that regular chocolate which usually has a high sugar and milk content wasn’t as effective, not to mention it is more damaging to your health due to its high sugar content.
Interestingly, there have been a small number of products that have combined 60 percent cacao chocolate with an ingredient known as L-theanine. L-theanine is an amino acid that you can find in green tea and it acts as a relaxant on your body. This is the opposite of cacao, which stimulates your body and makes it more alert. The great thing about this new combination is that it heightens the cacao benefits to new levels. The opposing combination of L-theanine and cacao have surprised many with results, showing even greater ability to lower blood pressure and to help you focus. Cacao benefits of chocolate cannot be ignored. When you think of chocolate, you don’t normally think of it as something healthy. It’s time we change that notion because certain types of chocolates when eaten in moderation, have health benefits.
Our body continually builds up nasty things called free radicals. You get this from being exposed to the sun, the pollution in the environment, or smoke that you may inhale from a passer-by, is harmful to your healthy tissues in your body and can lead to cancer or lung disease. The benefit of cacao rich chocolate is that it has a high amount of antioxidants. Antioxidants can be thought of as the body’s defender against free radicals, helping to search and destroy them.
Cacao benefits your physical and mental health by acting as a stimulant for your central nervous system. In addition, it relaxes your smooth muscles and gives energy to your body. By improving the circulation of blood in your body, neurotransmitters such as serotonin are more readily available, improving your mood and even fight depression.
Cacao contains ingredients like flavanols, which dilates the blood vessels. This in turn reduces your blood pressure. As a result, we can say, cacao has a positive effect on efficient blood flow throughout your body.
By lowering your blood pressure, cacao also improves heart health. Studies have shown that cacao has caused a 20% reduction in strokes and 10% reduction in heart disease. Improved circulation means that your organs and muscles get a constant supply of blood carrying important nutrients and oxygen. Your heart will not need to work as hard to get blood to parts of your body. This will in turn, lower the buildup of plaque on your arterial walls, which means less chances of building up a clot or lowering blood pressure with people who suffer from hypertension.
Cacao also help you digest your foods better. The fibre content in raw chocolate encourages your body to produce more digestive enzymes.
Eating dark chocolate, therefore, has its benefits - whether you have an important meeting and need to be at your best, or if you suffer from hypertension, you may want to consider adding at least 60 percent cacao chocolate in your diet. We can’t stress enough, the benefits of dark chocolate to your health. Look for dark chocolate that has less sugar content and a high (at least 60%) cacao. Try to get organic cacao, as non-organic cacao may contain harmful ingredients that originate from pesticides used in farming. Be mindful that there are many cacao crops out there that are linked to child slavery, so be on the lookout for fair traded goods in raw chocolate, as well.
It isn’t all good news when it comes to eating raw chocolate rich in cacao. As we mentioned previously, cacao chocolate is a powerful stimulant. The primary benefits of cacao are lowering blood pressure and increasing alertness. However, too much stimulation can be a bad thing. Cacao is known to stimulate both the heart and nervous system. This sometimes can give you a feeling that your heart is racing after you eat some cacao chocolate. You may also experience feelings of anxiety, irritability, and nervousness. The ingredients in cacao can sometimes stimulate the autonomic nervous system, which controls our breathing and digestion. When the stimulation reaches a point that is excessive, the body is put in a flight or fight state, which is one of the body’s survival mechanisms. By eating cacao chocolate on a regular basis you may even begin to have symptoms of high blood pressure, which defeats one of the primary benefits of cacao consumption in the first place. Other symptoms include, anxiety disorder, irregular heartbeats, depression, insomnia, headaches and a overactive bladder. Cacao-rich chocolate also stimulates our adrenal glands, which is great if you need a ‘pick me up’ when you are feeling tired and exhausted in the afternoon. However, as it’s always mentioned, moderation is the key. Too much stimulation can lead to cause adrenal exhaustion. At this point in time, it may be even possible to develop such intense cravings for cacao and chocolate that you need to eat it every time you are feeling down. This can potentially result in an unhealthy addiction to chocolate.
One of the benefits of cacao is that it helps produce a few feel-good hormones such as dopamine, serotonin, and adrenaline. These neurotransmitters play a role in putting you in a good mood, controlling pain, and helping you sleep. You need these to be at an optimal level for the normal functioning of your body. These feel good neurotransmitters can ultimately end up feeling like a drug for your body not too different from amphetamines and alcohol. It is no surprise to a lot of people, that we eat chocolate not only to satisfy our physical appetite but also our minds. It makes us happy and helps us feel good, and in the long term, with over eating of cacao chocolate, your mind and body may become addicted. This can lead to you having insomnia, anxiety, obesity, nervousness, severe mood swings, and adrenal fatigue.
However, it’s not all bad news when it comes to the benefits of cacao and adrenal fatigue. Cacao benefits have many antioxidants and are high in magnesium as well. These are great in keeping you calm and ridding your body of free radicals, which are both beneficial for reducing the load on your adrenals. It is also important to keep in mind that cacao contains theobromine and caffeine. Usually most people can have these ingredients with no harm to their bodies but with adrenal fatigue sufferers it can increase your symptoms of anxiety, depression and nervousness.
Raw chocolate can activate the stress response in your body. Stress can occur due to many factors including your diet. As they say, you are what you eat. A response from the NeuroEndoMetabolic Stress Response can be activated by the content found in cacao, as they release glucose into your bloodstream. With the additional glucose load in your blood, your body will respond by producing more insulin to regulate your blood glucose bringing it within the normal range. This glucose balancing act takes a toll on your pancreas, thyroid, adrenals, and liver. Over time, the body will no longer be able to effectively balance your blood sugar, resulting in hypoglycemia.
Food sensitivity, inflammatory bowel disease, leaky gut, and musculoskeletal pain are all symptoms of an inflammatory response from the neuro endo metabolic stress structure. The inflammatory response is activated after eating too much cacao chocolate. The inflammatory response is important because it’s the body’s defensive line against harmful pathogens and toxins that can damage our cells. Its primary purpose is to find the cause of cell injury, remove dead tissue and cells and start tissue repair. If the body’s inflammatory response is deranged by excessive eating of cacao chocolate, it can trigger negative symptoms. Another issue that you need to be concerned with, is food sensitivities. The benefits of cacao are not to be disregarded but you need to be aware that foods like chocolate are inflammatory to your gut. It is true that when you compare raw chocolate to your normal sweetened and refined chocolate, that the raw chocolate with lots of cacao has a high content of antioxidants and minerals essential for the health of your body. However, there is an issue with raw chocolate activating a stress response from the inflammatory properties and also the caffeine content. Caffeine will trigger the release of sugar from your liver into your blood which can lead to too much sugar storing as fat and insulin resistance.
Some brands of cacao chocolate also come with higher levels of metals like lead and copper. This can affect your mental health and reduce your ability to handle mental stress, overloading neuro endo metabolic stress response from your body affecting your health. So as a consideration for an adrenal fatigue sufferer, try to limit your consumption of raw chocolate that has a high percentage of cacao. There’s no denying about the benefits of cacao chocolate as it contains antioxidants, minerals and magnesium, but there are alternatives that you can try while avoiding the negative health effects. Like everything in life, especially when it comes to what you eat, it’s best to take everything in moderation.
