There are many reasons why I started to eat raw foods as my daily diet, and one of them was to get off of chocolate which I seemed to be eating daily. Living in India at the time, it was quite a challenge getting good ingredients, but always managed to have raw cocoa powder and raw cocoa butter in my kitchen.
For my birthday I took myself to a cleansing center in Ko Samui, Thailand. During my juice cleanse, I attended a class on raw food preparation. The chef spoke about this new product called raw cocoa powder. He showed me a newly released book about the great benefits of raw cocoa powder, written by David Wolfe. He blended a cocoa drink for me to drink during my cleanse, telling me all the wonderful properties of it. Of course I loved it! After not having any chocolate for 13 months, and happy without it, I was now drinking a chocolate drink on a cleanse! (Problem was he was using Dutch processed and not pure cocoa powder.) Now I had enough reasons to start eating it again. And I did! This started my chocolate journey once again. I always wanted to write the center to complain about this, but never did.
I ate raw cocoa treats that I made for many years sometimes daily, fighting the lack of energy during hot summer months in India. Finally, I had to stop as it caused some physical difficulties which no longer served my physical body.
Recently I taught a “Healthier Treats for You and Your Family” class on Maui. Cocoa hearts are always on the menu. I joined in and ate some after a very long time, and of course loved them. I was so charged I had to take a long evening walk and a swim on the beach to wear myself out. The next day I wanted more cocoa hearts. I was out of cocoa butter which is one of the ingredients in my recipe, so I used coconut oil instead. This was faster, had a different texture, and tasted just as good. However, this time, I could sleep at night, no physical problems, or skin eruptions. Wow! Now I started to think that the cocoa butter has more stimulants than the cocoa powder itself.
I won’t be adding this treat to my daily diet, because it does have a physical effect on me, but now once in awhile I know I can enjoy without staying up all night! Everything in moderation!
