Who knew Raw Chocolate was a Health Food?

By Kate Magic

Imagine if you’d only ever had pasteurised orange juice out of a carton, and you tasted a fresh orange for the first time. Or if you’d only ever eaten white sliced bread and then you saw some whole grains of wheat, you quite possibly wouldn’t recognise them as the same thing! Well, that’s the difference between what we think of as a chocolate bar and pure, unprocessed, raw cacao.

EU regulations state a chocolate bar has to contain a minimum of 17 % cacao solids. Cacao solids are a highly processed form of cacao that have been heated at very high temperatures and lost much of their nutritional value. They are then combined with hydrogenated fats, dairy products, additives and preservatives, not to mention large amounts of sugar, to produce the kind of chocolate snacks we are all familiar with. If a carton of orange juice contained only 17 % oranges, or a loaf of bread only 17 % wheat, consumers would be outraged. But somehow this pale imitation of chocolate is deemed the real thing.

Still, even in its processed and denatured form, chocolate is one of the most popular foods in the world. It contains over 300 naturally occurring chemical compounds, making it one of the most complex foods known to man. Raw chocolate is a superb source of minerals, particularly magnesium and sulphur, an amazing source of antioxidants, plus it famously contains a host of mood boosting elements such as Anandamide (the bliss chemical) and PEA (the molecule of joy).

No wonder then, that since raw chocolate began being sold in the UK in 2004, its popularity continues to grow and grow. Now a good wholefood store will have at least one raw chocolate bar on its shelves. Infinity Wholefoods in Brighton usually has at least eight different brands (Brighton has to be the raw chocolate capital of Europe)! But even more interesting is the range of products you can use to make your own raw chocolate bars and cakes. You can find the beans in their whole form, and the nibs, which are the beans broken down into small pieces for greater ease of use. Then there is cacao powder, which has a far superior taste and chocolaty buzz than conventional cocoa powder. And don’t forget divine raw cacao butter, which smells like it came straight from heaven.

If you have any interest in gourmet food, and find any joy in inventing delicious new things in your kitchen, I urge you to join the raw chocolate revolution now! Definitely the most fun health food has ever been.

For more information on raw chocolate products, including the Raw Living range of chocolate bars and chocolate cakes, you can visit Kate’s website www.rawliving.eu where you can find articles, recipes and an online shop.

Kate’s book Raw Magic – Recipes for the Revolution, published by Rawcreation in 2008 contains dozens of cacao recipes. And the raw chocolate bible is Naked Chocolate by David Wolfe & Shazzie, also published by Rawcreation.