Spoonful of Sugar Free

Registered Dietitian

Kuna Cocoa

By

I’ve talked about the benefits of chocolate before on my blog; but while driving home today I listened to another great testimony of chocolate’s wonderful health benefits, so I decided to talk about it again.

I don’t know exactly what radio station it was on, but I found an article that talks about it similarly HERE. I recapped what I learned and what I thought was the most interesting below.

(Picture Source) 

A medical professor at Harvard University, Dr. Norman Hollenburg, spent years researching the Kuna tribe in Panama. Some of the Kuna people still live on an island off the coast of Panama, but others moved on to live in the mainland. Dr. Hollenburg found that four of the most common killers, stroke, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, affected fewer than 1 in 10 of the Kuna living on the island compared to the much higher percentage of people living on the mainland. He also said that he has yet to find a Kuna from the island with Alzheimer’s. What’s the difference? Those living on the island drank an average of 5 cups of cocoa every day. 

This cocoa they drink is not the Hot Chocolate we are used to. This is pure chocolate scraped fresh from the pods and made into a paste to make the cocoa drink. No milk. No sugar. Just pure chocolate. Chocolate contains a powerful flavanol called epicatechin, which can also be found in tea, wine, chocolate and some fruits and vegetables.

So get your chocolate on!

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Grain-Free Bitter Chocolate Cake for One

Chocolate Covered Almonds

Thought-provoking, mind-prodding question of the day:

What is the darkest chocolate you will eat? If you don’t like chocolate, your crazy.

I can’t eat anything less than 100%. I like it bitter.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  4. I’m not going to lie, I like it sweet. But it’s something I want to work on, I’d like to refine my tastes to prefer less sugar 😉

  9. For christmas every yr my family is given chocolate covered peanuts! They always look so tasty but hav milk in them so I never get to eat them 🙁
    But your chocolate covered almonds, well man those just sound so much more appealing to me!! 🙂

  14. I’ve been trying to train myself to like 100% since being diagnosed with insulin resistance. I’ve always loved dark chocolate. Right now I’m eating 90% and loving it. I had 70% the other day and it tasted too sweet.

  15. i was inspired by heab to try unsweetened baker’s chocolate and i LOVE it!!! i keep squares by my desk, in my kitchen, & in my nightstand at all times! so good with tahini, too!

  16. Hey! I just discovered your blog over at Pure2Raw! love what you have going here! im a huge fan of dark chocolate! the bitter the better! check out my site if you get a chance! another health filled blog:) jessiannjames.com

  18. I can’t do 100%. It’s like my tongue doesn’t know what to do with itself. haha. The darkest I’ve tried is 70% and I loved it, so maybe I’ll bump it up to 80% next time. 🙂