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I don’t think it is the caffiene. I can have a cup of coffee and feel nothing but jittery. I can have 4 or 5 cups of black tea and feel exactly the same as before I drank it, if not more dehydrated, but cacao…ah I feel energetic, high and motivated. and I’m sure the small amount of cacao that I have is not anywhere near equivelant to coffee or several cups of dark teas in caffiene. I’m not sure what it is exactly. But I love it. I suppose I ought to dig out my book on herbs and reread the section on cacao.
Isn’t it fun?
Ohhh have_mersey, I am glad to hear your confirmation on this! yay ! I cannot believe a food could make me feel so great. and I agree.. coffee does make you jittery .. i forgot about that. ( i recently gave up coffee and was so addicted for so long my body was used to the caffeine & i haven’t experienced the jitters in a long long time ).. nor do i plan to go back to coffee anymore either!
:) I feel the same. I couldn’t believe something could make me feel sooo good. Forget about how good it tastes! I really need to find that book and read it tonight or first thing in the morning.
Where do you guys get your cacao nibs from? Do you buy them online? I have been trying to find them at health food stores with no luck. Can you even find them in stores?
Yeah, all I’ve seen is toasted ones.
There isn’t much of anything here, so I have to do alot of my shopping online. It depends on how much you are buying, and what else you are buying with it, what is the best place to get them.
i can purchase both goji berries & raw cacao from my local health store but I ordered this particular shipment from amazon.com (they were cheaper than my health store + free shipping!)
after reading this i ate a handful of goji berries and a banana and did an hour workout in the park and i was bouncing all over the place with energy! i had some cocao earlier in the day so the banana seemed like a good idea, and it was!
artzyfartzy >> Thanks for sharing the info concerning Amazon.com. The prices are way lower than what I’ve been paying.
Check out www.iherb.com too, you may find them even cheaper…
Cacao nibs don’t have caffeine but theobromine, a sister of caffeine. Cacao is quite stimulating nonetheless, a real superfood, keeps me up all night if I take it too late in the day, great early in the day to keep you going. It also seems to fire off creativity in the brain for me, lots of ideas, inspirations etc. Gojis and cacao are both superfoods and will most likely cause quite a stir when you take them both together. It’s quite healthy though, just good to use it to effect when you need them.
I’ve been having cacao before my shifts every day….a couple spoonfuls of cacao butter, and I’m totally chatty and energetic even more than usual!!
Cacao also has Anandamide, aka the bliss chemical, and Phenethylamine, the chemical our bodies produce when we fall in love. :)
http://www.sunfood.com has more info on cacao.
cacao give me a CRAZY HIGH! i feel like i can DO ANYTHING! i want to RUN! no, wait, i want to CLEAN! no, that’s too tedious, i want to DANCE!
then a few hours later, i feel a little strung out. i don’t get this exact reaction from coffee, but sometimes i’m not so sure the cacao is the best thing for me. but i do love the test, and what can i say, i enjoy the high as well…
mandelicious: I was afraid i’d get that same low too. but i didnt. I actually even slept better than usual?! I guess its different for each person?
achin70: bliss! that’s exactly the word for how i felt yesterday :) thanks for the link too.
Sweetpea; i also noticed I felt more creative too. After the goji + cacao I was suddenly inspired to fire up the sewing machine and make myself some headbands. :)
Artzyfartzy: I’ve been detoxing, so now I feel the effects of the cacao more than before. I’m not sure if I feel more creative, I just motor around the office at a million miles an hour, or buzz around the kitchen making my green smoothies, and I keep wanting to say the word “awesome”!
It’s so funny that you posted this, because last night I was having a huge choco-craving. I’ve been feeling really blah this past week, totally unmotivated, yuck! I found the recipe for Devil’s Food Superballs (http://goneraw.com/recipes/3703-Devil-s-Food-Su…) on this site and thought I’d give them a try. Yum! I started feeling a little better, but it was getting late and so I went to bed – no problem dropping off to sleep, but I’ve always been an easy sleeper. Well, this morning I woke up in the best mood! I’ve gotten so much done today! I’ve been productive and creative and really feeling awesome and I think it’s got to be the superfoods! Because I’d really been feeling like crumbs lately and today I feel like a million bucks! Has anyone else noticed a delayed reaction to cacao/goji/superfoods? Or maybe it’s all in my head! Regardless, I might have to have those Superballs every day!
i definitely can’t sleep when i have alot of cacao (just a little is OK.)
artsyfartsy – WooHOO! That sums it up!!!:)
mandelicious: just curious..does coffee do this to you as well? I know that coffee used to keep me up (especially if i drink it after noon ) ~~ but so far so good with the cacao. :)
LibbyB: I also felt good this morning. I suffer from mild to moderate depression and S.A.D … well I read today that cacao has some definate proven mood lifting benefits. I am thrilled because I refuse to take the depression meds my doctor prescribes to me.
Luna blu: LOL! I had a more cacao / goji this afternoon :) My new secret on handling the stress of a whiney toddler ;)
I have used cacao a lot since it first came on the market, and it helps balance my hormones (no PMS if I’ve been eating enough cacao), and I have started eating it again the last few days because I have started to feel super stressed/depressed. No problem for me sleeping when I have eaten it. :) Yep, everyone is different – some people don’t do well with it at all. I think I need to go make something chocolate…:)
i made a cake with cacao, goji’s, hemp seed, cashews and raw honey. definately has a zing to it.
I bought chocolate covered cocoa gojis and they were disgustinggg
I imagine the chocolate covered cocoa gojis would taste pretty awful. I have seen those around before and thought what a horrible waste of good food.
To get raw cocoa nibs try finding your local bulk herb store? I have searched for cocoa nibs in bulk but no luck until I went into my local herb store.
I’m pretty disappointed with most raw food desserts/sweet snacks. They’re too sweet for my palate, and it’s always fresher and tastier when I make my own. It’s really a blessing, since those raw food snacks are spendy! :)
achin70 – I’m with you – I like my own better, and it saves me a bunch! Although I do have a sweet tooth at times, It’s nice to be able to control how much and what ingredients are used. However, when I was first starting to eat high raw, and for emergencies, I love that the premade ones are available! :)
Hello. Will someone please post the hyperlink to the driblets, or giblets or niblets or whatever, from Amazon? Thanks
You can just go to www.amazon.com and do a search for “raw cacao” – that will show you nibs and powders, as well as some other stuff. Heehee nibs are just broken up pieces of the cacao beans. :)
Artzy, I didn’t have a low either. And I slept fine, but I’m not sure about better than usual with me though, the cats wake me up wrestling :p. I also go to bed early, and had had it fairly late in the day. It just makes me feel happy and energetic. Cacao and dark green leafies make me forget I was ever so deeply depressed. It’s really amazing. I never thought I’d even feel “normal” let alone energetic and happy. Happy has been an unknown thing with me, I always thought feeling “normal” was happy. So it’s very very nice. And the greatest thing is that It was so quick. Imediately after eating raw I felt “normal” and two days later I was perky and magnificent. :) I love life. So weird to hear me saying that. :D Kale and cacao are my best friends.
I was very skeptic of superfoods in general & figured it was all hype.. i am now sold on them now & can’t wait to try other things. My husband who works 3rd shift often doesn’t sleep for 24 hours straight.. and when I fed him some cacao nibs + goji berries & almonds.. he told me he did not feel as tired as he usually does that day.
Have_mersey: I also CRAVE kale! I think its the depression / SAD disorder I have.. cacao & kale really seem to help me alot. I never could of imagined something as simple as raw chocolate would do this. AND no rapid heartbeat, sleeplessness, anxiety, weight gain etc., (all symptoms of anti-depression medication I’ve experienced)...
And I can totally relate with not knowing how to be happy even when things in life are ‘ok’ ..I’ve been praying alot and eating raw foods have finally given me peace. I just wish I would of figured all this out 10 years ago.. I now want to tell everybody I meet about my raw experience :)