Bill (Philippines) on 02/28/2022:
In the morning, I always have a mug of raw cacao hot chocolate(and water) every day. The cacao I take is made direct from the locally-grown cacao beans with minimal chemical processing. In the Philippines the natural cacao is sold as raw, large, circular, dark-chocolate "buttons" that are very cheap to buy. And a mug of cacao + water actually tastes like dark Swiss chocolate containing no milk or sugar. I've always loved and preferred the taste of dark chocolate and have never really liked the heavily processed and sugary milk chocolate cacao products that are sold in all the supermarkets.
The way Filipinos prepare and make their hot cacao drink is they first pour a mug full of water into a pan, add 4 or 5 large, raw cacao "buttons" and then carefully bring it to a gentle rolling boil, stirring it all the time. After about 5 mins, when the cacao is the right thickness and consistency, remove the pan from the heat and pour the cacao + water into a mug and add sugar. But I always drink my cacao with no sugar. One of the reasons I drink the raw cacao is because it helps to provide essential minerals in their natural form such as: calcium, copper, sodium, magnesium, iron, zinc, potassium and phosphorus.
Cacao also contains a small amount of caffeine and a much larger amount of theobromine, which are both beneficial for the body. Theobromine also helps to improve cognitive performance, lowers cholesterol, promotes sleep etc and is highly beneficial to the body:
https://drugs.selfdecode.com/blog/theobromine-benefits/
By the way -- and just to be absolutely clear -- theobromine does not contain any bromine.
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Mr Canada (Toronto) on 02/27/2022:
Raw cacao is a good source of copper, for those who are copper deficient or seeking a natural source of copper. Copper is important for many body functions, a lack of copper can be often confused with iron deficiency as both show symptoms of anaemia and supplementing with high doses of Vitamin C, iron and Zinc can cause a copper deficiency as it offsets the copper balance unless you are also supplementing with plenty of copper that is bio available, I recommend natural sources of vitamins as supplements have different molecular structure and for the most part synthetic.
I'm not a doctor and not giving medical advice.
