Hot Cocoa (Cacao) in the Raw

Sure, it's hot chocolate season and you should go ahead and indulge because chocolate is good for you.  You've probably heard that before, right?  Remember, though, when people say that chocolate is good for you, they're not talking about processed milk chocolate.  They are talking about dark chocolate (70%+ is the party line), or even better than that, raw chocolate.  Cacao comes from the nuts (the seed from the fruit) of the cacao tree.  Yep, chocolate grows on trees.

Raw chocolate (cocoa, cacao) is super-rich in antioxidant bioflavonoids (more than any other natural food tested so far), which can aid cancer prevention, boost immunity, and help maintain healthy blood flow (regulate BP).  Cacao is a great source of important minerals and vitamins including magnesium, sulfur, calcium, zinc, iron, potassium, manganese, and many B vitamins.  It's also a source of important amino acids and neurotransmitters (tryptophan, dopamine, and others), which promote positive mood and mental alertness, alleviate depression, and can postpone the onset of dementia.  Cacao has anti-inflammatory properties and has been shown to be an appetite suppressant.  But remember: eating processed milk chocolate is not the same thing.  You can sit down and eat a whole bag of mini-Snickers bars near Halloween and you just keep wanting more, but you wouldn't feel that same addictive need to eat a whole bag of raw chocolate.


So, by all means, have your hot cocoa, but this year DO IT RAW.  If you've been making your hot cocoa from packets or big tubs of cocoa mix, you are definitely not alone.  I think most people who make their cocoa this way do so because they think it's easier (instant!).  I'm here to tell you that making your hot cocoa from raw chocolate, natural sweetener, and your choice or milk or milk alternative is easy, fast, tasty, and so much better for you and your family. 

At the end of this post, I'll be leaving you with a recipe for making your own Raw Hot Chocolate with these ingredients: high-quality milk or unsweetened almond milk (for a dairy-free version), raw cacao powder, and 100% pure maple syrup.

But first, here are the ingredients lists for the Regular Hot Chocolate and No Added Sugar Hot Chocolate products from one of the most popular hot chocolate mixes on the market.

Regular Hot Chocolate Mix

11 Ingredients:

• sugar
• modified whey
• cocoa, processed with alkali
• hydrogenated coconut oil
• nonfat dry milk
• calcium carbonate
• salt
• dipotassium phosphate
• mono- and di-glycerides
• artificial flavors
• carrageenan

No Sugar Added Hot Chocolate Mix

14 Ingredients:

• modified whey
• nonfat dry milk
• cocoa, processed with alkali
• malodextrin
• hydrogenated coconut oil
• calcium carbonate
• salt
• dipotassium phosphate
• carrageenan
• acesulfame potassium
• sucralose
• artificial flavors
• polysorbate 60
• mono- and di-glycerides

Wow, that took up a lot of space!  And that was half my point.  You don't need all that in your hot cocoa, do you?  I don't have the space to go through each of the ingredients above, but I'll spotlight 3 of them and tell you a little bit about why they're good to avoid.

Cocoa, processed with alkali - Cocoa powder, great.  Processed with alkali, not so great.  Because it is alkaline (on the pH scale), alkali is added to cocoa powder in many processed products in order to neutralize the acidity of the raw cocoa.  The result is a milder, sweeter powder that mixes more easily with liquids.  That all sounds great, but processing cocoa with alkali also reduces the concentration of antioxidants (specifically, flavonols) in the cocoa, thus negating some of the biggest health benefits of drinking your cocoa.  That's no good.

Carrageenan - Carrageenan is a thickening agent derived from seaweed.  Hey, seaweed's great for you, so that doesn't sound so bad at first either.  The problem is that carrageenan in processed foods can easily degrade into poligeenan, which studies have linked to inflammation, gastrointestinal ulcerations, and cancer.  Why take that risk?

Hydrogenated coconut oil - Again, we start with the positive -- coconut oil is great (one of the only saturated fats that you should include in your diet).  But hydrogenated is BAD.  You always want to run, not walk, from hydrogenated oils.  If you don't already know it: whenever you see "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated", you're looking at a trans fat, the worst kind of fat to ingest.  Trans fats are not naturally occurring fats, rather they are created when hydrogen is added to naturally occurring oils.  Our bodies simply don't know what to do with these foreign substances -- it's kind of like eating plastic -- and trans fats (trans fatty acids) have been linked to obesity, heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol and much more.

Now, on to the good news.  Making your own Hot Cacao in the Raw is so easy and incredibly tasty.  Give it a try this Fall and Winter.  You can probably find raw cacao/cocoa powder at your local health food store.  If not, you can definitely buy it online -- this is one of my favorite online sources of raw cacao powder (and other herbs and spices), but you can also buy from Amazon using one of the links up top. 

Hot Cacao in the Raw

(less than 100 calories per serving, when using almond milk; ~150 calories with milk)

Ingredients:

• 8 fl oz milk (high-quality/organic/raw)
  or unsweetened almond milk (dairy-free alternative)
• 1 TBSP raw cacao powder
• 1-1/2 tsp - 1 TBSP maple syrup (to taste)

Making your Hot Cacao:

1. Heat most of your milk/almond milk in a saucepan on the stove to just about boiling.
2. Leave the rest of your milk/almond milk (~2 TBSP) in the mug and mix with cacao powder and maple syrup.  It may not fully dissolve in cold milk/a.m., but once you add hot liquid, it will dissolve just fine.
3. Add hot milk/a.m. to mug and mix to dissolve cacao and maple syrup.
4. Enjoy.

Alternatively, you can combine your milk and cacao in the saucepan, whisk to combine them while heating, and finally stir/whisk in your maple syrup -- you might find that your cocoa blends more easily with this approach.

Eat Well.  Live Well.  Be Well. 

Soup Season's Started

Sweet Winter Squash Soup, garnished with Squash Seeds

I love soup!  Soup is comforting, healing, warming, and nutritious.  All summer long I pretty much go without soup.  I naturally get into more of a raw food -- tons of fruit and veggies -- mode, and soup just doesn't seem to make sense.  So, by the end of summer, I start my love affair with soup all over again.  For me, this has started to happen over the past couple weeks. 

Here in NH, we had a short stretch of cold, rainy weather a couple weeks back, and that was my excuse to make my first soup of the season: chard and ceci beans (chickpeas) in my homemade chicken broth {recipe #1 below}.  Last week, I found myself with an interesting new winter squash from the farmers market and some hand-picked apples from a local orchard, and that's when I made soup #2: winter squash-apple soup with kale, dulse, and pinto beans {recipe #2 below}.  And just the other day, I made soup #3: hearty lentil soup with swiss chard {recipe #3 below}.  It's so nice to enjoy these soups freshmade, but I also try to freeze half the pot in single-serving jars because it's great to have a ready-made meal on those nights when you come home tired and just don't feel like cooking.

So, get out your big soup pot (and some jars for freezing) and give one or all these recipes a try. 

Swiss Chard, Chickpea, & Chicken Soup (*veggie option too)

Ingredients:

• 8 cups chicken broth (*or veggie broth)
• 2 cups water
• 4 small sweet onions, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 bunch swiss/rainbow chard, stalks sliced and leaves chopped
• 3 cups cooked chickpeas
• 1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• 1/3 cup fresh basil, chopped
• 2 celery stalks, sliced
• 3 carrots, sliced
• 1 TBSP olive oil
• sea salt, to taste

Making Your Soup:

1. In a large soup pot, sautee onions in 1 TBSP olive oil, until soft and translucent.  Add some chicken (*or veggie) broth if the onions begin to stick.
2. Add garlic, chard stalks, celery, carrots, and 1/2 cup broth, and cook for another 5 minutes.
3. Add remaining broth, water, and chickpeas.  Bring to a boil for 3-5 minutes.
4. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for ~10 minutes.
5. While soup is simmering, chop chard, parsley, and basil.
6. Add chard, parsley, and basil, and continue to cook for another 5-10 minutes, until chard is tender.
7. Salt to taste.

Sweet Winter Squash Soup (with kale and pinto beans)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked winter squash (1/2 med-lg. winter squash) -- save your squash seeds.  rinse them, coat with olive oil and salt, and toast in oven.  set aside to garnish your soup.
• 2 small sweet onions, chopped
• 2 celery stalks, sliced
• 1/4-inch piece of ginger root, peeled and minced/grated (~1 TBSP)
• ~1-1/4 cup pinto beans, cooked (or, a 15-oz. can) -- could also use aduki beans
• 3 cups veggie/chicken broth (or water)
• 1/4 cup dulse (or other seaweed), cut into small pieces
• 3 med apples, cooked and chopped (or 1 cup unsweetened applesauce)
• 4 fronds kale (~1 cup, uncooked)
• sea salt, to taste
• 1-2 TBSP olive oil

Making Your Soup:

1. Sautee onion in olive oil for a few minutes.
2. Add celery and ginger, and sautee another 1-2 minutes.
3. Add 1 cup veggie/chicken broth and HALF the beans.  Sprinkle with salt and keep on medium heat another 2-3 minutes.
4. Combine cooked squash, cooked apples/applesauce, sauteed veggies/broth in food processor.
5. Add another cup broth and 1 TBSP apple cider vinegar to food processor.  Puree.  Salt to taste.
6. While soup is in processor, sautee chopped kale in 1/2 TBSP olive oil.
7. Return mixture to soup pot and heat with sauteed kale, remaining pinto beans and final cup veggie/chicken broth.
8. Simmer on low-med heat for ~10-15 minutes
9. Garnish with roasted squash seeds (or roasted edamame)

Hearty Lentil Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 med-lg sweet onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 celery stalks, sliced
• 1 bunch swiss/rainbow chard, slice stalks & chiffonade leaves
• 3-4 carrots, sliced thick
• 5-6 new potatoes or fingerlings (I used purple potatoes), thinly sliced
• 4 med-lg tomatoes, chopped (or 28-oz can diced/crushed tomatoes)
• 8 cups chicken or veggie broth
• 3-4 cups water
• 1-1/3 cups dry lentils
• 2 TBSP olive oil
• sea salt, to taste

Making Your Soup:

1. In a large soup pot, sautee onions, garlic, celery, and chard stalks in olive oil until onions are translucent.
2. Add potatoes and carrots. Sautee 2-3 minutes.
3. Add tomatoes. Cook another 3-5 minutes.
4. Add lentils. Mix with veggies over heat.
5. Add broth and water.  Bring to a boil.
6. Cover and cook at a soft boil/simmer for ~30 minutes.  After 15 minutes, add chard leaves.
7. Salt to taste.
8. Garnish with fresh-grated parmesan, if you like.

Eat Well.  Live Well.  Be Well.

We Are How We Eat: Let's Make Some Food-Mood Connections

As you know from previous posts, I did a 10-day spring detoxification cleanse back in April.  As part of that process, I kept a detailed food-mood log.  I wrote down everything I ate and drank, what kind of activity I did, how I slept, how I felt (foggy, energetic, sad, focused, etc.), digestive problems, congestion, allergies, acupuncture appointments, everything.  This is a really powerful (and simple!) tool. 

Most people I know would call me a "healthy eater", but what does that mean?  Yes, I cook the majority of my own food, I eat whole foods and avoid processed foods at least 90 percent of the time, but I still experience undesired symptoms sometimes.  For me that can mean headaches, congestion, poor sleep, and intense food cravings.  The problem with stepping back too far is that it's hard to see the connection between your symptoms and your lifestyle.  You end up thinking: "What's wrong?  This is so frustrating.  I eat healthy.  I live healthy.  But I still have all these symptoms." 

When you write down everything (everything!) and then review it, you really do see the patterns, and often the direct connections, between foods you eat and how you feel.  For instance, I have discovered over the past month or so that for me, right now, nuts make me crazy (or "nuts", if you will).  When I reintroduced nuts (organic, raw almonds and cashews -- healthy, right?) after my cleanse, I started experiencing hunger, cravings, and mild anxiety.  Because I was paying attention and tracking everything in my food-mood log, I took nuts back out of my diet after a few days and I lost all those symptoms.  There are reasons for this connection and it is also likely that the reaction is only temporary, but for now, for me, I've learned something very important to make me feel healthier and happier.

Although each of us is an individual and we need to pay attention to our own unique reactions and patterns (yet another reason to keep a food-mood journal), here are a few common food-mood connections to consider...

Do you feel spaced out, sad, overly sensitive, or hyper?  Hmmnn....where do sugar, chocolate, alcohol, fruit, and caffeine fit into your diet? 

Do you feel impatient, frustrated, stubborn, stuck, aggressive, or controlling?  If so, think about how much salt (not just table salt, but processed foods), meat, cheese and eggs are in your diet. 

I encourage you to get a notebook or set up a spreadsheet on your computer and begin keeping a food-mood journal. 

At the very least, record the following information: date, what you ate (everything you eat at meals, snacks, grazing), what you drank and how much (tea, coffee, soda, juice, water), physical activity, any comments about how you feel emotionally and physically, any cravings.  This is one of my first exercises for my health counseling clients.  I guarantee that by doing this you will: (1) learn something profound about your own food-mood connections; (2) have some accountability for your food and activity choices; and (3) increase your awareness of how much water you drink daily. 

Have you tried keeping a food-mood journal before?  Was it useful for you?  Are you ready to try it, or try it again?

Eat Well.  Live Well.  Be Well.