This article may annoy you. I say this because I’m going to be talking about both sides of cacao – which means the bad side too.
It was interesting in my research to find very strong arguments both for and against cacao. Some writers were even quite bitter and aggressive towards the opposing side of their belief.
In the beginning I was fully prepared to belittle cacao and be one of those bitter and aggressive people. From the small amount of research I’d already done, cacao wasn’t looking too good and I was convinced the physical and energetic symptoms I’d been experiencing were entirely due to cacao. But the more I researched both sides of the argument the more I realized that cacao is a wonderful, beautiful medicinal food that needs to be treated with great respect. But it’s also a food that I’ve chosen to in future consume only very sparingly. And this article will explain why.
What’s the “problem” with cacao?
The problem isn’t really cacao. The problem is mainly to do with the Theobromine found in cacao. Sure cacao also contains mycotoxins, oxalic acid and cannabinoids which have their problems too, but the majority of the complaints about cacao seem to be pointing towards the Theobromine content.
The thing is, cacao is absolutely amazing, and I agree with David Wolfe that it truly is a “superfood”. It’s packed full of goodness including extraordinary high levels of magnesium, chromium and iron in addition to having one of the highest levels of antioxidants in any food source – only third to cloves and chaga mushroom that I’m aware of.
And a lot of research has also been done on cacao which has really helped the superfood stand out as one of the most amazing medicinal food sources on the planet. David Wolfe in particular has videos and articles all over the web which discuss the range of healing benefits found in cacao which are worth a read or a watch, just do a simple Google search.
But of course if you’re a chocolate lover then you already knew all of this. So let’s get into some of the information on the “bad” side of cacao which is perhaps the information that you didn’t actually know. Continue reading →
I recently wrote an article on the sweetener xylitol, which quite clearly stated that if you choose to consume xylitol then you need to look for a product that’s made with birch not corn. But I didn’t tell you why! And some of you have asked so I thought I’d better clarify why I made that statement.
You see, a lot of the corn grown out there is genetically modified. This is hugely political so I’m not going to go into too much detail. Instead I encourage you to do your own research if you want to find out more. All you need to know for now is that corn has unfortunately had a history of being mucked around a little too much in laboratories instead of doing its own natural thing. 
As you probably know from previous blog posts, I launched myself into another cleanse roughly two weeks ago. I had little to no preparation leading up to the cleanse. It was actually something my boyfriend at the time and his close friend were planning on doing, so I guess I got caught up in their enthusiasm. All I really knew about the cleanse itself was that it was a raw vegan Candida cleanse. I’m high raw anyway and enjoy being raw vegan, had wanted to do a Candida cleanse for a couple of years, and prefer cleansing with others, especially my lover. I also have roughly three months before I head off to the US for an extended trip (3 months is the duration of the cleanse) and it’s preferable to do a Candida cleanse after a colon cleanse which I’d just done so it seemed like the perfect cleanse to do with the perfect timing.
