The Health Benefits of Cocoa Beans

The Health Benefits of Cocoa Beans: To celebrate Valentine’s Day, we wanted to touch on the basic ingredient of every chocolate lovers heart.  Cocoa.  Whether it’s a chocolate bar, truffle, or mocha, they wouldn’t be one of our favorite indulgences without it.  For all of the negativity surrounding sweets, cocoa is actually very good for you, and improves your overall health.  Within moderations of course.  Let’s go over a few positive aspects of this miraculous bean.

Cocoa beans are fermented seed of the cocoa tree.  It’s native to the Amazon regions and at one time was considered an important crop in Central and South America.  The fruit of the cocoa tree is a pod full of a sweet pulp that forms in clusters containing 20-50 cocoa seeds.  Cocoa is rich in minerals such as iron, magnesium, calcium and phosphorus to name a few.  It also provides the body with carbohydrates, protein, and other dietary fibers.

Cocoa offers anti-inflammatory, anti-allergenic, anti-carcinogenic qualities and has show to have other beneficial health properties.

Cocoa has been found to lower high blood pressure through the production of nitric oxide.  It also has been found to contain more antioxidants than black and green tea.  Cocoa improves brain health though flavanols, which effects learning and memory functions, as well as enhancing blood flow to the brain.

Cocoa has been found to balance cholesterol levels, treat diabetes, relieve bronchial asthma, speeds up healing, manages obesity as well as cardiovascular health, mood enhancement and relieving constipation.  There are many, many other benefits to cocoa, but I have touched on just a few.

If you are interest in other benefits, just hit the link below and enjoy.  Also, enjoy this Valentine’s Day and try not to eat too much chocolate.  Moderation is the key…..

Source: www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/other/health-benefits-of-cocoa.html