When you’re trying to keep to a specific health and fitness plan there are many minefields to avoid, especially if you’re trying to reduce your refined sugar intake. Learning the difference between how raw Cacao powder and cocoa powder can affect your health could help you stick to a weight loss plan or low-sugar diet.
Read on to learn more about the difference between Cacao powder and cocoa powder.
What is raw Cacao powder?
Cacao powder is the purest form of chocolate available on the market and it can also help you keep to a weight loss plan or low-sugar diet, as well as provide you with the same mood-enhancing benefits that regular cocoa powder chocolate can.
Cacao powder follows a completely different manufacturing process to its cousin cocoa powder. Once the cacao pods are harvested from the Theobroma cacao tree, the cocoa beans are fermented and cold-pressed, in a low-impact and nutrient preserving manufacturing method designed to ensure that as many of the natural enzymes are kept alive as possible.
Once this process has finished, the raw cacao beans are not roasted at high temperatures so the health benefits of the natural enzymes, polyphenols and minerals including calcium, magnesium and zinc are still present in the raw Cacao powder.
The health benefits of eating raw Cacao powder include a higher nutritional value, higher antioxidant levels and no added dairy products or refined sugars.
It’s worth noting that the taste of raw Cacao powder is tart and tastes like bitter dark chocolate compared to the often saccharine sweet flavour of cocoa powder. It might take a little getting used to at first, but it’s easy to introduce raw Cacao powder into your daily routine by adding it to a smoothie or in home baking.
If you’re looking for a superfood to help lower your blood sugar levels which also has the added health benefits of lowering inflammation, boosting your mood and helping with weight loss, then raw Cacao powder is the superfood for you!
A tasty and healthy Cacao powder recipe
For a tasty way to use raw Cacao powder take a look at our easy and tasty Cacao Avocado Mousse Recipe below.
What is cocoa powder?
Cocoa powder is different from raw Cacao powder in many ways. One of these is that the cocoa beans used in cocoa powder are roasted at much higher temperatures compared to raw Cacao powder. This results in the molecular structure of the cocoa bean changing. The plant’s naturally active enzymes are broken down in this process too.
But the process doesn’t stop there. Once the cocoa beans have been roasted, they are ground to produce cocoa mass where the natural cocoa butter is extracted to leave the cocoa product behind. In some instances, ‘Dutch’ cocoa is then washed in a potassium solution which removes the cocoa’s acidity to create the smooth texture of our favourite chocolate bars that we’re familiar with.
However, what many people don’t realise is that when the potassium solution is added, it strips away a lot of the natural enzymes which may have survived the roasting and grinding process.
So what you’re left with is smooth tasting cocoa that will still have a few minerals remaining. However, the nutritional value is severely compromised when it’s added with dairy products and refined sugar to form cocoa powder.
You can boost your mood and help with weight loss among other health benefits when you switch to raw Cacao powder. Make sure you purchase raw Cacao powder from accredited superfood retailers to ensure that you’re getting the best quality product available.
