Emootje
Senior Member
- Messages
- 356
- Location
- The Netherlands
Welcome to Phoenix Rising!
Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of, and finding treatments for, complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia, long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.
To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.
I use raw cacao powder in a hot daily rehydration drink and it does help. I like the cacao because it makes the rehydration drink taste a bit like hot chocolate. But the dose suggested in that video is crazy high, I only use a few teaspoons per day at the most, sometimes just a half teaspoon once or twice daily. Sweetened with Stevia, and also I add L-Lysine to counteract the Arginine in the cacao, which seems to be important. In my experience the chocolate is not a magic answer, but it does seem to improve the effectiveness of my rehydration drink. The rehydration drink improves my energy levels, helps me sleep through the night, and reduces PEM. The cacao may be part of that effect. So this report seems plausible, but only as part of an overal treatment, certainly not a focal treatment.
People who are finding a benefit from chocolate - what sort of chocolate are you consuming, how much, and what sort of benefit have you noticed?
People who are finding a benefit from chocolate - what sort of chocolate are you consuming, how much, and what sort of benefit have you noticed?
Laura - what size of small square? You can generally work this out quite easily. If the chocolate bar is 100g, and it is comprised of largeish squares, 2 across and 5 along, then it's 10g (e.g. Lindt). If it's 3 across and 8 along, then each piece is about 4g, and if it's 4 across and 9 along, then it's about 3g per piece. And the reason why I know all this is because I have just been losing weight and I have had to measure out my chocolate properly, instead of just wolfing it down.
In terms of eating cocoa powder alone, I do make stuff with cocoa powder, but the one time I tried it in an electrolyte drink (which already has d-ribose in there as a sort of sweetener), I found that it made me far too jittery, heart racing and so on. Possibly the fats and sugars help tone that effect down? I wasn't having much cocoa powder, that was the odd thing. Anyway, I make up chocolate peanut butter balls as small snacks (pretty healthy ingredients, and they're only the size of Maltesers so about 20 calories each), which I find give me a nice protein boost and are a good pick-me-up. Also I make my own chocolate spread, as the commercial dairy-free ones are both vile and overpriced, but that won't be any good for you, Mark, as it's composed of hazelnut butter, dairy-free margarine, cocoa powder, syrup of choice (usually agave - maple tastes divine but gives me a bit of a head rush), and a bit of soya milk to stop it going too thick in the fridge (though another milk would do, I'm sure). That isn't for health purposes, though, that's for the joy of having lovely dark chocolate-hazelnut spread every now and again, and I'm mentioning it for people who feel that they need dairy-free chocolate-hazelnut spread in their life. It's very easy, you just stir it all together (trying not to let the cocoa powder puff all over the place). Hazelnut butter is the best nut butter I've tried for this, it tastes good and isn't too thick, although now that I'm adding a bit of milk in for the texture, I may try messing around with almond butter (much thicker) instead, if I can find an affordable one that isn't salted. You could de-soya it easily enough by using another plant margarine and if needed, another plant milk. Not sure about de-nutting it: would tahini taste good?
By the way, only 73% or so, folks? That's not really all that dark. I'd have thought you meant 85% or higher! I generally go for Lindt for that, though on having a look, they appear a little fuzzy around the "may contain traces of" area. Tesco sells a couple of own-brand 85% chocolate which I recall as being good, and one of them even seems to fit Mark's criteria (if he doesn't mind nuts having previously been around on the machinery) - and is mercifully cheap compared to the other brands I've been discussing. I find that I need to get to about 85% before the chocolate is dark enough that it's always easy to stop at one 3g piece. With 70% or so, sometimes I can stop there, sometimes it's harder. I was given a bar of 99% once, which took a while to get into. Generally I ate it broken into little pieces with some raisins (green raisins if I can get them, delicious), and often some almonds as well. Probably not the best snack for dieting, this is before I learnt about calories and just how dense in them nuts are, but I think it's reasonably healthy, and you'll be getting a nice dose of minerals at the very least.
I heard about chocolate avocado mousse a while ago. I am still looking at the recipes with suspicion, I must confess. I haven't had an avocado in months due to gallstones, but now that I've had surgery, I plan to return to the joys of avocadoes, and I might try mixing up a small amount and seeing what it's like. Some people say they can taste the avocado underneath, some can't.
The Trader Joe's chocolate you mention turns out to be a standard 100g (3.5oz) bar, so your squares are just over 8g each. Nice size.