Dark Chocolate and Antioxidants              DarkChocolateResearch.com

Cacao trees grow in the rain forests near the earth's equator. Ghana and the Ivory Coast produce about 70 percent of the world's cacao, with Indonesia and Brazil contributing the bulk of the rest. The trees produce hard-shelled pods that contain 20-50 cocoa beans, which are harvested and processed in a variety of ways to produce forms of chocolate ranging from cocoa powder to delicious-tasting chocolate bars.

From antiquity to the present, chocolate has been one of society's most beloved foods. As mentioned, however, most people associate chocolate with unhealthy attributes usually reserved for junk food. This is due largely to the processing and marketing of commercial chocolate as "candy", and most of these products are manufactured with poor-quality cacoa coupled with high sugar content, added fats, caffeine, waxes, and fillers --- leading to the unfortunate label of "unhealthy."

Why do we need Antioxidants? Almost everyone has heard of free-radicals and antioxidants. Free Radicals are unstable molecules that attack the cells in the body. They are the "bad-guys" and they affect everyone. Free radicals are a by-product of breathing, stress and pollution. Regardless of how healthy you are or what kind of environment you live in, your body is constantly bombarded with free radicals. Estimates by experts suggest that every cell in your body is attacked an average of 10,000 times every single day.

Scientists have linked Free Radical and oxidation damage to more than 200 diseases and disease processes including certain types of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, cataracts, arthritis, Alzheimer's, Multiple Sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, lung disease, fibromyalgia and others.Free Radicals can be controlled with compounds called antioxidants. Antioxidants neutralize free radicals.

So how can we tell which foods are best for antioxidants? This is the very question that top researchers set out to answer when they developed an objective scientific test that would measure the potency and power of antioxidants from different sources.

The test produces a number commonly known as an ORAC score.

ORAC is an acronym for Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity.

Antioxidants are like sponges that absorb and neutralize the free radicals. The higher the score the more oxygen free radicals can be absorbed and neutralized. The table  illustrates the differences that we see from food to food. Raw spinach scores far better than cherries or red grapes. Blueberries, long believed to be the richest antioxidant food, is nearly twice as powerful as raw spinach. But look at Acai Berry and Unprocessed Cocoa Powder...they dominate the list with scores of 18,500 and 26,000.  

Xocai utilizes both Acai Berry and Unprocessed Cocoa Powder in their product along with blueberry powder. But their real secret isn't just in the ingredients...it's in their proprietary method for processing the raw cacao. That process is revolutionary in that preserves the health benefits of the raw cacao while maintaining the rich satisfying flavor of gourmet chocolate. The result is a delicious real Belgian chocolate with all the nutrition left intact.

You must watch this Video by Dr Steve E Warren, MD DPA