Remember the blissful days of childhood ignorance when eating was carefree, about what tasted good, and of course, what mom forced us to choke down before we could eat dessert. The days before we knew about the ugly things to come from eating only what tastes good like: obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease and cancer. As a result we have developed an unhealthy love- hate relationship with food. As children our thoughts about food is focused on what we can eat. As adults the opposite becomes true we focus on what we shouldn’t eat and the joy of eating is lost to feelings of guilt and anxiety about food. Listen up my friends IT ENDS TODAY! On behalf of all adults who want to once again experience the joy of eating without guilt, for all who want to admit openly your love for food without shame I declare that from today forth we ask not what food can do to us but what food can do for us. In order to do this we must start anew, redefine our relationship with food and rediscover what food is for, our health.

We will start our journey with what for most of us was our first true love. The food that started it all that introduced us to an indulgence of our senses we never thought possible, chocolate. Warning after reading this I just might be your new best friend. For years I have read research on the health benefits of dark chocolate, however, the rewards that can potentially be reaped from eating chocolate often are weighted down with negatives like the fat and calories that come with it. My intrigue with chocolate was rekindled when in the grocery store I noticed chocolate companies have started advertising the percentage of cacao in their chocolate as a marketing tool to play up the health benefits of their chocolate. This led me once again on my quest for healthy chocolate.

Through my research I have discovered not all chocolate has health benefits. In an attempt to understand and sort out the overwhelming amount of chocolate research I went straight to the source. I contacted Chocolatier Vanessa Barg, AKA: the Chocolate Girl. Vanessa owns gnosis chocolate a small but rapidly growing raw chocolate company in New York City. Vanessa is a self proclaimed chocolaholic and is also a certified holistic health counselor. Um, very interesting a chocolaholic health nut, as the saying goes, opposites attract. Vanessa says no a chocolaholic health nut is not contradictory on the contrary the two words are synonymous. However she warns not all chocolate is made equal. The health benefit of chocolate comes from its origin the cacao bean. Chocolates with a higher percentage of cacao are healthier because they are closer to their natural state as a bean. Hence why dark chocolate is the healthy chocolate. All of the chocolate that we consume in the United States starts with cacao beans however with most of the chocolate we eat the cacao gets processed by cooking, adding sugars, preservatives and fats to make what most Americans know as chocolate. Through this process most of its powerful benefits get diminished and chocolate becomes an empty calorie fattening food that ends up on our do not eat list. Vanessa feels that this is a huge injustice to us and to one of the earth’s most healthy and gratifying foods. She created her company with the purpose in mind to reintroduce chocolate to the world as one of the healthiest foods you can eat and she has the science to back her up.

Medical research shows cacao being useful as a blood pressure lowering agent to cancer prevention and everywhere in between. Cacao is the most antioxidant rich food on the planet nothing green can even compete with it for antioxidants. It is also the #1 source of magnesium which helps support heart, brain and digestive system and consequently is one of the minerals Americans are most deficient in around 80% of us. Cacao is also rich in iron, magnesium, chromium, anadamide, manganese, zinc, copper, and Vitamin C. Most of us have always believed chocolate naturally has caffeine in it come to find out we were wrong cacao is actually a poor source of caffeine yielding less than one cup of decaffeinated coffee. Cacao has also been shown to have little to no effect on blood sugar. Chocolate has gotten its tainted reputation mostly from our own misunderstanding of its powerful benefits and from the processing of it into candy. gnosis chocolate is what is known as raw chocolate completely unprocessed, uncooked handmade with no machines and with no sugar or fats . gnosis chocolate is sweetened using agave nectar a natural sweetener that is close to honey but has a much lower glycemic index . gnosis chocolate is as close to the cacao bean as you can get at around 90% cacao. Vanessa likes to invite people “to indulge their health not their hips” with her chocolate.

I have only scratched the surface in talking about chocolate in this article it is a powerful food listed at the top among the “super foods” when eaten in its proper form preferable raw. To learn more about gnosis chocolate or to order your own visit www.gnosischocolate.com . If you are interested in learning more about the benefits of chocolate and other super foods look for Walton Wellness sponsored chocolate events this summer or visit www.waltonwellnessonline.com.