The next time you throw yourself, mouth first, into a chocolate cake, throw guilt out the back door along with your reservations. You won’t just be satisfying your chocolate cravings, you’ll be getting your antioxidants.
Quick little science lesson. We should all be majorly concerned about getting more antioxidants. Why? Because of the demons, called free radicals, that attack our cells. These molecules which contribute to disease and degeneration, are constantly being generated. Constantly.
Experts tell us that we can fight the team of destructive free radicals by choosing foods that are high on the oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) scale.
A recent report from the USDA Nutrient Data Laboratory detailed the ORAC values of various foods – a few that we knew were heavy hitters and one we may have been taking for granted.
According to the the report, raw broccoli was shown to have an ORAC score of 1,362. Very respectable, right? Then again, we knew broccoli would have a good showing. However, they were topped by blueberries, with a score of 6,552!
But even blueberries didn’t reign supreme. Cocoa powder outdistanced the rest of the field with an ORAC score of 80,933!
Nutritionists point out that we should choose cocoa that’s organic rather than the non-alkalinized variety. Also, be warned that “Dutched” cocoa has been treated with potassium carbonate, which cuts the antioxidant capacity in half.
Get creative and find delicous, chocalate-y ways to sneak more cocoa into your diet. When I’m feeling fancy, I dollop a little whipped cream on top of my coffee (or hot chocolate) and sprinkle some cocoa on top. It’s also pretty irresistible on top of ice cream and pudding. One of my daughters (Brittany) sprinkles cocoa on her oatmeal, but she also puts steak sauce on her macaroni, so I take what she does in the kitchen with a grain of cautious salt.
I can’t say that I’m that familiar with smoothies (I desperately need a new blender), but I’ve read a lot about using cocoa in berry smoothies. Sounds great, but I think I’ll stick with my coffee for now.
The Organic Cocoa shown above can be found very reasonably priced on AMAZON.com, or you can use NOW’s Store Finder for a location nearest you.
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