Oct

Chocolate Smoothie Recipes With Cacao

By Tracy Russell

Raw chocolate (cacao) makes an excellent flavoring and superfood boost to many smoothie recipes. It works well with most base fruits such as bananas, mangoes, peaches and pears. It mixes well with most flavor fruits and is a nutritious indulgence to green smoothies.

Raw Chocolate (Cacao/Cocoa) Nutrition and Health Benefits

Antioxidant Powerhouse! Cacao provides a powerful dose of antioxidants including polyphenols, catechins, epicatechins and flavanoids. According to David Wolfe, an expert on raw food nutrition, raw cacao contains more antioxidants by weight than red wine, blueberries, acai, pomegranates, and goji berries combined.

Vitamins and Minerals. Cacao contains magnesium, iron, chromium, anandamide, theobromine, manganese, zinc, copper, vitamin C, Omega-6 fatty acids, phenethylamine, tryptophan, phosphorus and calcium. Cacao is a good source of healthy fat and contains protein. There are four different varieties of cacao beans (aromica, criollo, forestero and trinitario) which can vary in overall mineral content depending on the plant variety, growing conditions and region. Sunfood brand organic cacao is made from the aromica bean and is very high in iron (314% per serving).

Total Body Wellness. Raw chocolate contains a variety of nutrients which help support the heart, brain, pancreas, liver, skin, digestion and immune systems as well as build stronger bones and healthy blood.

Eat Chocolate, Be Happy! Cacao is a mood-enhancer. Both anandamide (AKA “The Bliss Chemical”) and phenethylamine (AKA “The Love Chemical”) are found abundantly in raw chocolate. Magnesium helps to balance brain chemistry and tryptophan, an essential amino acid, plays an important role in the synthesis of serotonin, which also helps regulate mood and sleep patterns.

Raw Chocolate/Cacao Controversy

Some health experts have come out against raw chocolate citing it’s stimulant effects. My personal experience with cacao is that while I enjoyed eating it at first, I too found it a bit too much for regular consumption. My recommendation is to think of cacao as an indulgence and use it occasionally, but not every day. It’s a fun food, but not necessarily a health food when taken daily.

Recipes

– Chocolate-Banana with Goji Berries

– Dark Chocolate

– Chocolate-Coconut Green Smoothie

– Chocolate-Peach

– Browse even more chocolate smoothie recipes with cacao!

Chocolate-Cherry Smoothie

– 1 cup cherries, pits removed
– 1 whole banana
– 2 cups fresh baby spinach (or other leafy green)
– 1 ounce raw cacao nibs
– 1/2 – 1 cup water

Flavor And Sweetener

By itself, cacao is bitter. If you like extra dark chocolate, you should enjoy the flavor but it can be an acquired taste. The fruit in the recipes above helps sweeten the smoothies, but you can add additional sweetener if you feel you need it. I recommend using either stevia or agave nectar if you absolutely need a sweetener.

Why Raw Chocolate

To get the full health benefits of chocolate, I strongly recommend that you seek out certified organic, raw cacao. Several heat-sensitive nutrients in chocolate are destroyed in the processing of commercial chocolate including vitamin C, Omega-6 fatty acids, phenethylamine, tryptophan and flavanoid antioxidants. I do not recommend making chocolate smoothies with processed, sweet chocolate syrups or powders.

You can find raw cacao at most health food stores or online. You can either purchase whole cacao beans, nibs (broken pieces of cacao beans) or powder. Because heat is usually introduced to process the beans into powder, most powdered cacao is not raw. The only place I know of to find certified raw cacao powder is at Sunfood.com.

If you use the beans or nibs, you can add them straight to a Vita-Mix or Blendtec blenders. Otherwise, you’ll need to use a coffee grinder before you add them to your smoothie in most regular blenders or use the raw powder instead.