Las cosas claras y el chocolate espeso. (Ideas should be clear and chocolate thick.)
— Spanish proverb
“ ’Twill make Old women Young and Fresh;
Create New Motions of the Flesh,
And cause them long for you know what,
If they but taste of chocolate.”
— James Wadsworth, A Curious History of the Nature and Quality of Chocolate
As with all languages, the peoples of pre-Columbian Central America often spoke in metaphors composed of words or phrases which, when uttered in sequence, had a hidden meaning. One of these metaphors was yollotl eztli, “heart blood” — their special name for chocolate.
Aphrodisia: a Chocolate Revival Party
Chocolate truly is food for the heart — it is the heart’s “blood,” due to its magnesium, antioxidants, love chemicals and esoteric properties.
Cacao opens the heart center. It heals not only on the physical, chemical level, but also on emotional, spiritual and metaphysical levels.
Chocolate is not fitted to be a medicine for just the heart however. Chocolate also possesses sensual, pleasureful and sexual energies embracing touch and fantasy. Some writers have claimed that 50% of women prefer chocolate to sex! Since the beginning of time, chocolate has been known as an aphrodisiac. Recall the legends of the Aztec Emperor Montezuma who purportedly drank 50 cups of hot chocolate before visiting his harem.
Dr. Henry Stubbe made chocolate for King Charles II. He doubled the normal amount of beans used. Dr. Stubbes was convinced, as were most of his contemporaries in England and Europe, that chocolate was an aphrodisiac. He wrote:
“The great Use of Chocolate in Venery, and for Supplying the Testicles with a Balsam, or a Sap, is so ingeniously made out by one of our learned Countrymen already, that I dare not presume to add any Thing after so accomplished a Pen; though I am of Opinion, that I might treat of the Subject without any Immodesty, or Offense. Gerson, the grave Roman Casuist, has writ de Pollutione Nocturna, and some have defended Fornication in the Popish Nunneries; hysterical Fits, hypochondriacal Melancholy, Love-Passions, consumptive Pinings away, and spermatical Fevers, being Instances of the Necessity hereof, natural Instincts pointing out the Cure. We cannot but admire the great Prudence of Moses, who severely prohibited that there should be no Whore among the Daughters of Israel, yet that most wise Legislator took great care for their timely Marriage; upon these very Accounts the Casuists defend the Protestant Clergy in their Marriages. And Adam is commanded in Paradise to increase and multiply, therefore I hope this little Excursion is pardonable, being so adequate to this Treatise of Chocolate: which, if Rachel had known, she would not have purchased Mandrakes for Jacob. If the amorous and martial Turk should ever taste it, he would despise his Opium. If the Grecians and Arabians had ever tried it, they would have thrown away their Wake-robins and Cuckow-pintles; and I do not doubt but you London Gentlemen, do value it above all your Cullisses and Jellies; your Anchovies, Bononia Sausages, your Cock and Lamb-stones, your Soys, your Ketchups and Caveares, your Cantharides (Spanish Fly), and your Whites of Eggs, are not to be compared to our rude Indian; therefore you must be very courteous and favourable to this little Pamphlet, which tells you most faithful Observations.”
Casanova himself abandoned champagne in preference to chocolate.
Chocolate is one of the best natural sources of arginine, an amino acid. Arginine acts in a similar way to Viagra in that it increases blood flow to the penis and amplifies sexual desire.
Studies carried out by Alan Hirsch, the director of Chicago’s Taste and Smell Research Foundation have shown that the mere scent of chocolate causes a slight increase in penile blood flow. Why or how is unknown.
In addition to the theobromine — which is also found in tea and coffee — chocolate also contains the previously-discussed, mood-enhancing neurotransmitter phenylethylamine (PEA). Both theobromine and phenylethylamine stimulate dopamine production. Additionally, cacao itself contains dopamine. A study of mice and rats demonstrated that dopamine kick-starts a brain messenger chemical called DARP-32, which in turn activates hormones that make females more interested in sex.
Chocolate is, in essence, a gift to all lovers. It is an essential part of romance. Chocolate brings in the love vibration as many chocolate-lovers already know. A box of chocolates is the most celebrated gift for Valentine’s Day.
“Chocolate is a perfect food as wholesome as it is delicious, a beneficent restorer of exhausted power, but its quality must be good, and it must be carefully prepared. It is highly nourishing and easily digested, and it is fitted to repair wasted strength, preserve health, and prolong life. It agrees with dry temperaments and convalescents; with mothers who nurse their children; with those whose occupations oblige them to undergo severe mental strains; with public speakers, and with all those who give to work a portion of the time needed for sleep. It soothes both stomach and brain, and for this reason, as well as for others, it is the best friend of those engaged in literary pursuits.” — German chemist Baron von Liebig as quoted by the American Walter Baker & Company in the mid-nineteenth century, which like other chocolate manufacturers occasionally published pamphlets containing recipes and testimonials from nutrition experts.
The Spanish chronicler Sahagun’s informants enlarged upon the unique noble qualities of cacao in the following way:
“This saying was said of cacao, because it was precious; nowhere did it appear in times past. The common folk, the needy did not drink it. Hence it was said: ‘The heart, the blood are to be feared.’ And also it was said of it that it was (like) jimson weed; it was considered to be like the mushroom, for it made one drunk; it intoxicated one. If he who drank it were a common person, it was taken as a bad omen. And in past times only the ruler drank it, or a great warrior, or a commanding general. If perhaps two or three lived in wealth they drank it. Also it was hard to come by, they drank a limited amount of cacao, for it was not drunk unthinkingly.”
Cacao imparts an ennobling energetic creativity upon the consumer allowing information to be downloaded from a higher dimensional space that surrounds us all the time. This creativity comes in a frequency that particularly suits the alchemist, astrologer, writer and orator. This property is esoteric, and may never be precisely pinned down. We believe the ennobling properties are carried in cacao’s psychedelic purple oils which correspond to longheld lore that cacao butter contains the food’s noble aspects. Monoatomic elements, which have an affinity for the oils of purple seeds in particular, may also play a role.
Notably, we find scholars always discussing and writing about the advanced state of Mayan mathematics and the uncanny precision of the Mayan calendar. We suggest the obvious, that both were inspired in the minds of chocolate addicts. It appears that the whole Mayan astrological phenomenon was downloaded from chocolate hyperspace!
As we have noted, cacao is one of nature’s richest sources of magnesium, the brain mineral. Cacao is also a great source of serotonin, dopamine and phenylethylamine, three well-studied neurotransmitters which help alleviate depression and are associated with feelings of well-being. Cacao contains nutrients and types of neurotransmitter modulating agents which allow serotonin and dopamine to remain in the bloodstream longer without being broken down. This increases feelings of well-being and helps one become younger. Cacao contains anandamide which delivers blissful feelings and anandamide inhibitors which keep the bliss chemical from being prematurely broken down. Cacao also contains a host of B vitamins which are associated with brain health. All this makes cacao a natural prozac!
Research by British psychologist, Dr. David Benton at the University of Wales in Swansea, found chocolate to be an excellent mood elevator. When he played sad music to a group of students, their moods sank. He then offered them the choice of milk chocolate or carob (a natural chocolate substitute that is similar in taste). Without their knowing which product they were eating, the participants found that the chocolate raised their moods, while the carob did nothing. Moreover, as their moods fell, their cravings for chocolate increased.
Cacao assists with the emotional creation of optimism, creativity, joy and child-like laughter. This is embodied in the Willy Wonka character: a zany, creative, absurd and optimistic alchemist from the book and movie Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. Willy Wonka is in essence a product of the spirit of chocolate itself!
Exotic Tobacco flowers from a farm near Mitla, Mexico
“The cocoa woods were another thing. They were like the woods of fairy tales, dark and shadowed and cool. The cocoa-pods, hanging by short stems, were like wax fruit in brilliant green and yellow and red and crimson and purple.” — VS. Naipaul, The Middle Passage (1981), Trinidadian author
“I, too, have experienced the mystique of old cacao plantings. There is something wonderful about a plantation of wizened old cacao trees. Within this setting, moisture drips from every leaf and branch, and the mulch smells steamy and fresh. Little pools of sunlight filter through the large, flat leaves of the cacao trees, illuminating the leaf litter with its earth tones of russet, yellow, orange, and brown.” — Allen M. Young, The Chocolate Tree (1994)
“The flowering chocolate drink is foaming, The flower of tobacco is passed around. If my heart would taste them, My life would become inebriated.”
— Tlaltecatzin, Aztec poet
Cacao has a long history of being used in combination with other psychoactive plants. Jonathan Ott, scientist and author of many books on entheogens, including Pharmacotheon and Shamanic Snuffs, has noted a strong correspondence between South American and Central American plant shamanism. Ayahuasca appears to be the key psychoactive medicinal beverage of indigenous South American Amazonian culture and mixed cacao drinks appear to be the key psychoactive medicinal beverage of indigenous Central American culture.
Mimosa tree at Monte Alban, Mexico
Cacao works to potentiate three primary psychoactive pathways: tryptophan/tryptamine, phenylalanine/phenylethylamine and cannabinoid/anandamide. Cacao works along other pathways as well. Evidence suggests that lactone compounds are also activated by cacao. Additionally, psychoactive plants that work on yet-to-be-understood principles seem to be enhanced by cacao. Again, although theorized for some time, it has now been proven that cacao contains MAO inhibitors known as tetrahydro-beta-carbolines that potentiate and positively flavor entheogenic compounds.
Cacao somehow enhances the absorption of and/or inhibits the breakdown of tryptamine alkaloids such as those found in magic mushrooms, morning glory seeds, baby Hawaiian woodrose seeds, iboga root, certain mimosa barks and flowers, as well as certain acacia barks. Therefore cacao can perpetuate and/or amplify the effects of tryptamine-based entheogens.
It is well documented that visually-stimulating, consciousness-expanding mushrooms were consumed along with cacao drinks in various Aztec and Mayan rituals. The Aztecs called the magic mushroom: teonanacatl.
The best documented use of cacao and magic mushrooms together dates back to Aztec society. Cacao traders known as the pochteca (who were not actually Aztecs, but were the descendants of the Maya) would eat mushrooms in the evening and then continue boosting the effect with chocolate drinks all night.
The Spanish chronicler Sahagun wrote: “The first thing eaten at the gathering were certain black little mushrooms, which they called nanacatl, which inebriate and cause hallucinations, and even provoke lust. These they ate before dawn, and they also drank cacao before dawn.” According to Jonathan Ott’s research, another chronicler, Diego Duran, referring to a now-lost history text describing the coronation of Aztec emperor Ahuitzotl circa 1486 A.D., wrote: “In this whole story I have noted one thing: mention is never made that anyone drank wine of any kind to get drunk, but only woodland mushrooms which they ate raw, on which says the History, they were happy and rejoiced and went somewhat out of their heads, and of wine no mention is made … mention is only made of the abundance of chocolate that was being drunk in these solemnities.”
Teonanacatl
Researchers Valentina P. Wasson and her husband R. Gordon Wasson found the traditional mushroom-cacao ritual still intact in Mexico. On June 29th, 1955, Gordon Wasson and a friend visited shamaness Maria Sabina in her home village of Huautla de Jimenez outside of Oaxaca, Mexico. On that fateful night Maria Sabina fed Gordon Wasson a cacao beverage with teonanacatl. In 1957, Wasson’s experiences were published in an issue of Life magazine arousing the mass imagination of a new generation of Americans and helping to usher in the psychedelic era.
Swiss scientist Albert Hofmann’s subsequent pioneering research demonstrated that the teonanacatl obtained for him by the Wassons contained the psychoactive tryptamine, psilocybin. Subsequent research revealed another active tryptamine in the mushroom called psilocin.
Why would one get the idea of adding cacao to mushrooms? As it seems to do with all entheogens, cacao tonifies or qualifies the effects of mushrooms. It adds a lightness and silliness to the effect, and decreases the probability of having a “bad trip.” The spirit of cacao and the magic mushroom seem to be working together to expand consciousness and transform the planet from misery into hilariousness.
Traditionally in Mexico, mushrooms were crushed on a heated metate and then made into an aqueous infusion. This corresponds to today’s general shamanic strategy of making magic mushroom tea (held for 15 minutes between 140 and 160 degrees Fahrenheit and not boiled) to deactivate the liver toxins generally found in all raw mushrooms. Multiple 15 minute extractions of the material may be needed to draw all the psilocybin into the tea water (squeezing the material at the end of each extraction helps draw the active principle into the tea). This tea can be mixed with herbs and then blended with cacao and other alchemical ingredients to create magic hot chocolate.
Up to this day, the shamans of Huautla de Jimenez still use cacao beans with magic mushrooms in ceremonies. Occasionally, in Western culture, chocolate treats will show up made with magic mushrooms.
The Leguminosae family contains a large group of pod-fruit bearing trees that often possess high concentrations of the mind-altering dream chemical dimethyltryptamine. Of these, it is likely that some types of Mimosa barks and flowers were added to cacao potions. A plant in this group, probably Calliandra anomala (called tlacoxochitl by the ancients), similar to Bolivian calliandra (hair flower), grows in the Oaxaca region of Mexico. Researcher Jonathan Ott believes that twigs and flowers of this plant were added to cacao drinks.
A Mimosa flower
South and Central American Virola trees (of which nutmeg is an Asiatic relative) possess the indole compound 5-methoxy-dimethyltryptamine (5 MEO DMT) and thus visionary qualities. Virola guatemalensis bark is an ancient additive to cacao drinks. Interestingly, virola barks are also added to Ayahuasca brews.
Processed chocolate is not recommended to be used in conjunction with Ayahuasca (the tea combination of Banisteriopsis caapi vine and Psychotria viridis leaves), any of the Ayahuasca analogues (for example, Syrian rue seeds and Mimosa root bark tea) or with any pharmaceutical monoamine oxidase inhibiting drugs as it can lead to an adrenal and blood pressure reaction with the chemical tyramine found in the processed chocolate. As tyramine is a product of fermentation, fermented cacao contains measurable quantities of tyramine, yet, interestingly, unfermented cacao likely contains none. Further research needs to be done in this field.
The phenylethylamine in cacao, perhaps in conjunction with unknown neurotransmitter modulating agents, seems to also help boost the effects of psychoactive New World cacti (San Pedro, Peyote) and other phenylethylamine/mescaline-based plants and substances.
Due to their natural synergy and presence in geographically nearby regions, cacao has been traditionally used with psychoactive cacti. Cactus shamans have been known to offer cacao (along with items such as feathers and eggs) to the spirit world as barter for the health of the ill. The Huichol people in present-day Mexico incorporate cacao as a sacred offering to the spirit world during healings and ceremonies; they leave cacao or chocolate where they cut peyote buttons from their root with the serrated edges of Joshua tree leaves.
For possibly thousands of years, the natives of the Oaxaca region of Mexico have added the dried aromatic flowers of Quararibea funebris to a chocolate concoction they call tejate that is used in the treatment of anxiety, fever and coughs.
The Linnaean category system gave to the species the name “funebris” as it was initially found by Western botanists growing in a graveyard.
Quararibea funebris flowers contain at least three lactone alkaloids: funebral, funebrine and funebradiol. These compounds possess subtle relaxing and mind-altering properties that are activated when added to cacao. Lactones, we might recall, gained the attention of Western science as the active ingredient in the Polynesian root Kava Kava with its numbing and relaxing effect.
Quararibea funebris grows into a giant tree that can feed several families indefinitely with its rich production of flowers. The tree was at one time widespread and growing wild throughout the Oaxaca region of Mexico where it is still available in the markets. Due to deforestation, it lost its once wide growth range. It can still be found in its wild habitat in Guatemala.
Quararibea funebris flowers in the Oaxaca market, Mexico
Author and researcher Jonathan Ott, following the lead given by mushroom expert Gordon Wasson, believes that Quararibea funebris is the previously-unidentified, entheogenic flower, poyomatli. If this is true, Quararibea funebris was known in the ancient tongue as poyomatli, xochicacaohuatl or cacahuaxochitl. These words literally mean, “flower of cacao” even though funebris flowers are not botanically related to cacao. In Mexico today these flowers are known in Spanish as “flor de cacao” or “rosita de cacao” or “madre cacao.”
Strong consciousness-altering varieties of hemp cannabis were not likely to be found growing in Central America in pre-Columbian times. Even so, this plant deserves some elaboration as high doses of cacao seem to bring on a semblance of a cannabis high indicating a close affection between the two plants. Cacao is the only plant we know of, other than cannabis, to contain cannabinoids.
Cacao’s anandamide (a cannabinoid) and anandamide inhibitors boost and potentiate the effects of cannabis and its major brain-active component, THC. The anandamide inhibitors theoretically block THC from being broken down thus amplifying its effects.
Cannabis in combination with cacao has physical medicinal effects. Evidence in the United Kingdom is beginning to accumulate on cannabis’ herbal healing effects on multiple sclerosis. Now medicinal cannabis distributors have added chocolate to raw cannabis to potentiate healing. The mixture consists specifically of: cocoa powder, cane sugar, cocoa butter, lecithin, vanilla and 2% raw cannabis.
The 150 gram Cannachoc bars, as they are known, are made in volunteers’ homes, with raw materials donated by well-wishers.
The distribution group calls itself Therapeutic Help from Cannabis for Multiple Sclerosis. Enquirers, who must provide a doctor’s note to confirm their illness, may choose milk, dark, vegan or diabetic chocolate, and are recommended to take one piece three times a day to alleviate symptoms without causing a cannabis “high.”
Similar medicinal concoctions can be made at home. To extract the fat-soluble cannabinoids, add raw cannabis (crushed by hand) to cold-pressed hempseed oil in the ratio of one gram of cannabis per one fluid ounce of hempseed oil. Leave this to extract at room temperature in a dark cupboard for one month; shake daily. To stay below the threshold of psychoactive cannabis effects, but yet still maintain medicinal properties, add only one or two tablespoons of this potentiated hempseed oil to your daily cacao beverage.
The mulberry tree is a relative of cannabis. These plants share the same Linnaean Order as Urticates. Eating the mulberry fruit, in its unripe state, is purported to have similar psychoactive effects to cannabis; this has not been scientifically proven. We have experimented with concoctions of fresh, organic, ripe mulberries in combination with cacao and have felt an amplification of silliness and absurd behaviour — but we could have just been having a lot of fun.
Salvia divinorum is a psychoactive type of sage that has been spread by human hands in the mountain canyons near Oaxaca, Mexico. Cacao beans are traditionally left as an offering at each planting. A salvia tea made from the dry leaves mixes well with cacao. The effect of the tea is mild as Salvia divinorum’s psychoactive principle, salvinorin A (a lipid diterpene) is deactivated in digestion and only activated by prolonged oral exposure (i.e. chewing without swallowing for 30 minutes) or through smoking.
Datura flower infusions were sometimes added to cacao drinks. Although extremely dangerous to ingest, datura possesses visionary qualities. The active chemical ingredient is the toxic compound scopolamine.
Piper auritum — a relative of kava kava (Piper methysticum) — is a traditional shamanic plant additive to the cacao drink. The “cord” flowers and leaves of this plant possess safrole and isosafrole in significant doses. These compounds are the precursors for making MDA and MDMA-type compounds. Most people now add nutmeg to cacao for a similar effect.
Nutmeg is a strong shamanic plant native to the Spice Islands near New Guinea in Asia. The nutmeg tree produces a plum-sized fruit with an orangered skin containing a purple-brown seed (like cacao!). The seed is typically ground to form the nutmeg spice. Both the seed and skin contain entheogenic phenylpropene compounds (elemicin, myristicin, safrole).
Magnolia blossoms could be another psychoactive ingredient involved historically with cacao. Only specific types of magnolia blossoms would likely have any consciousness-altering effects. This effect is likely the result of nutmeg-like compounds that are possessed by magnolia.
Psychoactive marigold (a relative of the sunflower) was an important visionary substance traditionally added as an infusion to the cacao beverage. This variety of marigold’s active principle is still not known. The Mayan (and Mexican name) for this flower is cempazuchitl. Known as the flower for the “Day of the Dead,” it was an important herb in pre-Columbian times.
In summary, cacao seems to potentiate and positively flavour the effects of all entheogenic plant substances. The presence of cacao alters the experience to be more zany, hilarious and fun than normal. Cacao also boosts altered states of consciousness as they are fading.
Mural on the wall in the palace in Oaxaca, Mexico. It shows two shamans engaged in consuming a psychedelic beverage.
This is an artistic rendition of Pacal Votan’s sarcophagus lid. Lord Pacal, also known as Votan, was ordered by the gods to go to America to found a culture. He became the Mayan preist-king, ruling the empire of Nah Chan Palenque (in present day Chiapas, Mexico) for 52 years.
This is the extraordinary lid of Pacal Votan’s sarcophagus. Known as a Magician of Time, he understood mathematics as a type of language that transcended human verbal experience. He believed “All is number; God is a number; God is in All.” Based on the visionary qualities of the lid, Pacal Votan was likely a cacao shaman of the highest order.
The Corn god and the Cacao god having a party
“The persons who habitually take chocolate are those who enjoy the most equable and constant health and are least liable to a multitude of illnesses which spoil the enjoyment of life.”
— A. Brillat-Savarin, Physiologie de Gout
Chocolate has a long history of being used as a medicine and with medicine. Here we recount some of the key moments in the history of chocolate as a healer since the arrival of the Spanish:
1528: The conquistador Hernando Cortez, who toppled Aztec civilisation in the sixteenth century, reported that chocolatl improved a person’s resistance to disease and their stamina.
1529: Bernardino de Sahagun, the Spanish priest, arrived in Mexico where he was to remain and study for 61 years. He compiled oral histories of native informants in the most comprehensive text detailing Aztec culture ever published. The work was entitled: Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva Espana (General History of the Things of New Spain) sometimes called The Florentine Codex. He described various medicinal uses for cacao and included a warning against green cacao, which “makes one drunk, takes effect on one, makes one dizzy, confuses one, makes one sick, deranges one. When an ordinary amount is drunk, it gladdens one, Thus it is said: ‘I take cacao. I wet my lips. I refresh myself.’ ”
1529: Agustin Farfan’s Tratado Breve de Medicina (Brief Treatise on Medicine) listed the herbs of Mexico and their medicinal uses, noting that chocolate served as a hot beverage and is used as a laxative.
1662: In The Indian Nectar, or A Discourse Concerning Chocolata, the English explorer Dr. Henry Stubbe gave his preferred recipe for Chocolata Royal (mostly for pleasure) made with anise seeds, nutmeg, and cornmeal. Stubbe solicited his readers for anecdotes and other “preparations that I may not be ignorant of what effects Chocolata, or its particular ingredients have here in England … to inform or otherwise benefit men.” He also noted that cacao can provoke “lustful desires” and that the addition of vanilla will strengthen the heart. He also notes the high fat content of cocoa and devotes much of his treatise to his experiments in attempting to remove the “oyl.”
Dr. Henry Stubbes (or Stubbe or Stubbs who lived from 1632-1672) was perhaps the most widely respected and quoted English authority on chocolate. Dr Stubbes was a friend of the philosopher Thomas Hobbes (Hobbes became famous for his phrase: Knowledge is Power). Stubbes was said to have been a great chocolate alchemist. He believed that the cacao bean by itself was harmless, while most of the ingredients usually added to chocolate were harmful.
When he prepared chocolate for the great King Charles II, he doubled the usual quantity of cacao in relation to the other ingredients. Stubbes recommended that “cold” constitutions should add heating herbs such as allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves to the concoction. Dr. Stubbes wrote of the aromatic Tuscan embellishments to chocolate including: musk, ambergris, citron and lemon peel.
Stubbes made the later popular claim that “one ounce of chocolate is equal in nourishment to one pound of beef.”
1662: In the same year as the release of Stubbes’ book, Cardinal Brancaccio of Rome decrees that drinking chocolate does not spoil a fast because it is a medicine for nearly every ill.
1704: The French food writer Louis Lemery wrote in the 1704 London edition of his 1702 book Traite des Aliments the following about chocolate: “It’s strengthening, restorative, and apt to repair decayed Strength, and make People strong: It helps Digestion, allays the sharp Humours that fall upon the Lungs: It keeps down the Fumes of the Wine, promotes Venery, and resists the malignity of the Humours.”
1719: In his Natural History of Chocolate, the Frenchman D. de Quelus recommended drinking chocolate for “exhausted spirits” and restated Dr. Stubbes insight that an ounce of chocolate “contains as much nourishment as a pound of beef.” Quelus warned against its use by sedentary people. Quelus also provided recipes that broaden the applications of chocolate, such as mixing it with other substances, including powdered cinnamon for “a good purge.”
French doctor, Herve Robert, published an extensive, medically-referenced book entitled Les Vertus Therapeutiques du Chocolat (The Therapeutic Virtues of Chocolate) in 1990. He concludes in his book that chocolate does not cause:
• Acne
• Migraines
• Obesity
• Tooth decay
Consider the corroborating words of Jonathan Ott in his book The Cacahuatl Eater: Ruminations Of An Unabashed Chocolate Addict:
“Not only are cacao and chocolate products among the most nutritious foods known, but their consumption is not associated with obesity, tooth decay or acne, and allergies to cacao and chocolate are rare. Doctors, dentists and nutritionists, being unaware of the latest scientific research bearing on these topics, continue to toss out cautionary advice regarding consumption of cacao products, advice which is at best misleading, and at times just plain wrong. On the other hand, a subculture of health faddists or ‘organophiles,’ having taken this medical misinformation to heart (and thence to stomach), has embraced in the name of health and nutrition, substitute chocolate foods based on carob flour (powdered seed pod of Ceratonia siliqua), a product which is decidedly inferior nutritionally to cocoa powder. A veritable chocolate hysteria reigns, but it is all bosh, twaddle, balderdash, tosh, folderol, humbug, stuff and nonsense, ‘mere smoke of opinion,’ completely at odds with the facts.”
Obesity is considered to be a major factor in mortality from heart disease, and chocolate is incorrectly perceived to weigh heavily as a cause of obesity. In research cited by Jonathan Ott, the researcher Brummer found no correlation between chocolate consumption and early death from heart disease after surveying statistics from 20 countries. Sugar consumption, however, was found to be correlated with this illness.
Chocolate does cause, primarily through the action of anandamide, anti-oxidants, magnesium, phenylethylamine, serotonin, theobromine, tryptophan and unknown neurotransmitter modulating agents the following:
• An increase of general health
• A lessening of depression
• A lessening of stress
• Enhancements of pleasure, including sex
In The True History of Chocolate by Sophie and Michael Coe, Philippe Dufour is cited, who wrote a book published in 1685 on chocolate. Dufour made a metabolic/medical distinction between cacao butter and the earthy cacao residues that is of special note. He said: “But this way I do in no wise approve of, for the fat separating it self from the earthy parts, this sinks to the bottom, and the other keeps on top, so that being thus drunk, the first (cacao butter) loosens the stomach, and takes away the appetite, and the latter causes melancholy.”
In India, homeopathic preparations of cacao are used to combat hypotension (low blood pressure).
As with any food and medicine, remember that each will react differently in different people. We are biochemically and spiritually unique beings. Some people will know they have finally found the food of the gods, while others will remain indifferent. For some, cacao will be the great medicine they have always sought after, for others, cacao will be just another food.
In our experience, and after review of the literature and research, we have arrived at three conclusions about the medicinal value of cacao:
1) Cacao, like ginseng, is a potentiator (it amplifies the effect of medicinal substances taken with it). It is probably the ultimate alchemical delivery vehicle of medicinal substances into the human body.
2) And also, like ginseng, cacao has an enormous array of its own medicinal components such as anandamide, antioxidants, magnesium, phenylethylamine, serotonin, etc.
3) Unlike highly herbal ginseng, cacao is a tasty food that can be commonly eaten. Cacao crowds out the need for other foods. Cacao is an appetite suppressant allowing us to eat less and live more!
Consider the following research:
“Food of the Gods: Cure for Humanity? A Cultural History of the Medicinal and Ritual Use of Chocolate” by Dillinger TL, Barriga P., Escarcega S, Jimenez M., Salazar Lowe D., Grivetti L.E., Department of Nutrition, University of California, Davis CA 95616, USA, J Nutr 2000 Aug; 130 (8S Suppl): 2057S-72S
The medicinal use of cacao, or chocolate, both as a primary remedy and as a vehicle to deliver other medicines, originated in the New World and diffused to Europe in the mid 1500s. These practices originated among the Olmec, Maya and Mexica (Aztec). The word cacao is derived from Olmec and the subsequent Mayan languages (kakaw); the chocolate-related term cacahuatl is Nahuatl (Aztec language), derived from Olmec/Mayan etymology. Early colonial era documents included instructions for the medicinal use of cacao. The Badianus Codex (1552) noted the use of cacao flowers to treat fatigue, whereas The Florentine Codex (1590) offered a prescription of cacao beans, maize and the herb tlacoxochitl (Calliandra anomala) to alleviate fever and panting of breath and to treat the faint of heart. Subsequent 16th to early 20th century manuscripts produced in Europe and New Spain revealed >100 medicinal uses for cacao/chocolate. Three consistent roles can be identified: 1) to treat emaciated patients to gain weight; 2) to stimulate nervous systems of apathetic, exhausted or feeble patients; and 3) to improve digestion and elimination where cacao/chocolate countered the effects of stagnant or weak stomachs, stimulated kidneys and improved bowel function. Additional medical complaints treated with chocolate/cacao have included anaemia, poor appetite, asthma, mental fatigue, poor breast milk production, consumption/tuberculosis, fever, multiple sclerosis, reduced longevity and poor sexual appetite/low virility. Chocolate paste was a medium used to administer drugs and to counter the taste of bitter pharmacological additives. In addition to cacao beans, preparations of cacao bark, oil (cacao butter), leaves and flowers have been used to treat burns, bowel dysfunction, cuts and skin irritations.
Achitecture design from Mitla, Mexico
Pregnant women rejoice! Finnish research indicates that eating chocolate is good for the baby. Scientists at the University of Helsinki, who asked 300 pregnant women to record their chocolate consumption and stress levels, found that daily chocolate treats had a positive impact on the unborn baby’s behaviour.
Six months after the infants were born the mothers who had eaten chocolate reported more reactions such as smiling and laughter in their offspring.
“And the babies of stressed women who had regularly consumed chocolate showed less fear of new situations than babies of stressed women who had abstained,” reported New Scientist magazine.
Katri Raikkanen and her colleagues who conducted the research speculate that the effects they observed could result from chemicals in chocolate associated with positive moods being passed on to the baby in the womb.
Nevertheless, high doses of chocolate (binge eating) should be avoided while pregnant based on research done on reproductive and developmental risks introduced by caffeine.
“The cocoa bean is a phenomenon, for nowhere else has nature concentrated such a wealth of valuable nourishment in so small a space.” — Alexander von Humboldt, German scientist
Rudolf Steiner wrote that chocolate “tends to loosen the life body from the physical.” We have found that cacao expands flexibility creating a feeling of festive relaxation.
One of our favourite past-times is to consume large quantities of cacao (between 20-60 beans per person) and then do one or two hours of yoga. The magnesium and the MAO inhibitors increase physical flexibility and the methylxanthine stimulants add several hours of additional power and strength.
Also, cacao drinks make it easier to live on a liquid diet. Without solid food, the digestive system relaxes and the entire body becomes more flexible. Any yogi who has experimented with fasting knows this truth: eat less and you become more flexible, capable and clear!
The best strategy for overcoming chocolate addictions is to switch from processed chocolate to cacao. Cacao, being in its natural state, is less likely to be allergenic, addictive or reactive in the body. Cacao, of course, provides what all chocoholics love: the chocolate high without the hangover! Cacao alchemy is also a lot more fun!
Whatever you are going to eat, enjoy it. Letting go of guilt is a big step in overcoming any addiction. Consider that research at Northwestern University’s Medical School indicates that the brain regions activated by eating chocolate when it is rewarding are quite different from those areas that are activated by eating chocolate when it is perceived as aversive (as a result of having eaten too much chocolate). The same could probably be said of many foods.
Among other ingredients, typical processed chocolate bars and cocoa mixtures contain phenylethylamine (PEA), magnesium, methylxanthines (theobromine, caffeine), fat and sugar. One of these ingredients is probably causing the craving. If you cannot figure out which it is, take the following supplements, beverages and/or foods to cover all five:
• Add 1,000-2,000 mg of the amino acid supplements DL-phenylalanine or L-phenylalanine along with 500-1,500 mg of tyrosine twice daily on an empty stomach (at least one hour before a meal). Start with smaller quantities and then increase.
• Drink eight to twelve ounces of fresh green vegetable juice daily. Green juice can consist of celery, cucumber, parsley, lemon with apple to sweeten. This juice is chlorophyll-rich and a great source of magnesium. Another idea is to add 600 mg of supplemental magnesium daily or 6 droppers full of liquid angstrom magnesium before food.
• Replace chocolate with theobromine- and matteine-containing yerba maté tea.
• Add two tablespoons of cold-pressed flaxseed or hempseed oil twice daily to your meals.
• Include the following supplement, sweeteners and foods recommended to curb sugar cravings (the amino acid glutamine, yacon root syrup, stevia and/or moderate levels of low-sugar fruits such as tart green apples, cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, etc.).
• Include servings of superfoods in your diet each day for the brain-balancing amino acids and for vitamin B3 and B6. We recommend three handfuls of goji berries (sometimes called wolfberries), two tablespoons of spirulina, two tablespoons of blue-green algae and/or two tablespoons of bee pollen.
L-phenylalanine combines with tyrosine with the help of vitamin B6 to produce phenylethylamine which we find in chocolate. One study from 1986 showed that thirty-one of forty depressed patients with low levels of phenylethylamine responded well to large doses of L-phenylalanine (up to 14 g a day), making it an acceptable antidepressant (and an antidote for chocolate cravings).
“Chocolate: Food or Drug?” by Bruinsma K., Taren D.L.
Arizona Prevention Center, University of Arizona, College of Medicine, Tucson 85719, USA, J Am Diet Assoc, 1999 Oct; 99(10):1249-56
Although addictive behaviour is generally associated with drug and alcohol abuse or compulsive sexual activity, chocolate may evoke similar psychopharmacologic and behavioural reactions in susceptible persons. A review of the literature on chocolate cravings indicates that the hedonic appeal of chocolate (fat, sugar, texture and aroma) is likely to be a predominant factor in such cravings. Other characteristics of chocolate, however, may be equally important contributors to the phenomena of chocolate cravings. Chocolate may be used by some as a form of self-medication for dietary deficiencies (e.g. magnesium) or to balance low levels of neurotransmitters involved in the regulation of mood, food intake and compulsive behaviours (e.g. serotonin and dopamine). Chocolate cravings are often episodic and fluctuate with hormonal changes just before and during the menses, which suggests a hormonal link and confirms the assumed gender-specific nature of chocolate cravings.
Chocolate contains several biologically active constituents (methylxanthines, biogenic amines and cannabinoid-like fatty acids), all of which potentially cause abnormal behaviours and psychological sensations that parallel those of other addictive substances. Most likely, a combination of chocolate’s sensory characteristics, nutrient composition and psychoactive ingredients, compounded with monthly hormonal fluctuations and mood swings among women, will ultimately form the model of chocolate cravings. Dietetics professionals must be aware that chocolate cravings are real. The psychopharmacologic and chemosensory effects of chocolate must be considered when formulating recommendations for overall healthful eating and for treatment of nutritionally-related health issues.
These pyramids at Monte Alban, Mexico oversaw a culture based on cacao beans
“There was in those days a body of opinion which regarded tea and coffee as harmful and favoured cocoa. And I was convinced that one should eat only articles that sustained the body, I gave up tea and coffee as a rule and substituted cocoa.” — Gandhi, Experiments in Dietetics (Chapter 17, p. 50-51)
Everybody knows what chocolate is. It has found its way into every corner of the globe.
Chocolate is the best food ever. It is the food of the gods. Chocolate is good and healthy for you. Pure cacao, of course, is the best ever.
Chocolate saves us from the ravages of pessimism by its truly ridiculous nature. Chocolate saves the planet through absurd comedy.
As all the ancient legends and teachings demonstrate to us, cacao has arrived to restore the balance between humankind and mother nature. When humans overcut the jungles and take more than is given, cacao teaches us to restore order and natural harmony.
Real chocolate chips (raw cacao nibs!)
Chocolate plays a crucial role in our collective destiny of saving the planet from the jaws of disaster at the last possible second in the greatest story ever told.
The complexity of the chocolate tree and its astonishing fruit and seeds reminds us that only a small portion of the tropical jungle’s botanical and medicinal wealth has been tapped by human beings for practical applications. Great treasures await us if we can keep the jungle around long enough to investigate its mystery.
The tropical rainforests of the planet are threatened by greed. Loggers, miners and petroleum lackeys are all poised to pounce on our planet’s most incredible resource. Since cacao enjoys the shade it can be planted directly in the jungle without having to chop down all the trees. It can be our primary buffer against tropical deforestation.
Cacao is an economically beneficial crop for local jungle villagers whose growth and harvesting provides financial incentives to keep the jungle canopy intact. The jungle canopy provides sanctuaries for birds, animals, and creates more oxygen. Additionally, planted cacao groves grown within the jungle do almost as well as wild cacao trees — they are less prone to disease and able to produce higher yields.
Cacao trees attract at least 80 different species of birds into jungle areas where they are planted thus increasing biodiversity. Natural History magazine in their report on “The Chocolate Tree” found that rustic cacao farms attracted and protected a greater variety of species (such as bats, canopy birds and migratory birds) than other types of agricultural lands.
Cacao trees are helpful nitrogen fixers (although not as significant as legume trees in the nitrogen-fixing department) and they contribute to the ecological system in which they live by driving nitrogen into the soil through their seasonal cycle. It now seems evident that cacao is an essential and integral part of its natural environment in ways that we have yet to recognise. In 1996, for example, a previously unknown species of bird — the pink-legged graveteiro (Acronatornis fonsecai) — was found living in the canopy above a cacao grove in Bahia, Brazil. Toucans seem to frequent cacao trees even though they cannot peck through cacao fruit skins and the short height of the cacao tree makes them susceptible to predators. Toucans seem to hang out in cacao trees just because they like them!
Because it is a nitrogen-fixer it makes all the other trees around it grow better. Avocado, breadfruit, coconut, mango, oil palms, orange, as well as medicinal trees (such as Neem) can be grown with cacao in a sustainable jungle environment.
Planting and growing cacao is a great way to save the jungles! Demand for organic (pesticide-free) cacao creates a viable economic enterprise in tropical nations already battered by social and ecological challenges. As of 2002, ninety percent of the cacao grown in the world was grown on small, 25-acre or smaller, farms.
Even when world cacao prices are low, a cacao farm can provide the household with food and generate income at local markets. If the farm is abandoned, the fruit trees will be reclaimed by the jungle and the habitat will remain conducive to preserving biodiversity.
Every year insect, viral and fungal diseases of cacao trees are increasing. Pesticide treatments seem only to complicate the entire dilemma and, in the long term, actually make matters worse. The chocolate industry estimates that from 35 to 40 percent of the cacao crop is lost each year to disease. Particularly in West Africa, there is a blight involving the capsid bug, which attacks leaves, pods, young shoots and roots. Crop damage by this insect appears so severe that a hard-hit area is said to have been “blasted.” Theobroma cacao is being stalked by three serious plant diseases — witch’s broom, frosty pod rot (Moniliophthora rorei) and black pod rot (Phytophthora spp.) — all of which attack the pods and destroy the seeds and other parts of the tree.
Frosty pod rot can be somewhat controlled by removing infected pod-fruits. Witch’s broom fungus, unlike frosty pod rot, seems nearly impossible to control. It forms tiny spore-producing mushrooms on parts of the cacao tree and these eventually destroy the beans inside the pods. Witch’s broom has steadily attacked cacao trees in Brazil, where in just ten years, production of cocoa beans has dropped from 400,000 to 100,000 metric tons in spite of pesticide use. Interestingly, wild cacao trees in the rainforest do not seem to be as susceptible to the fungus.
In addition to the fact that pesticides do not safely protect crops, they are dangerous for our health as well. Lindane is a hormone disrupting pesticide (linked to breast cancer) that is sprayed on commercial chocolate crops in Africa. Lindane is considered toxic and an Austrian report in 1998 concluded that it is not possible to set a safe exposure level for lindane.
Lindane is due to be phased out in Europe following a European Union decision to ban it. Despite concerns about the health effects of eating lindane-contaminated chocolate and the risks to farmers using it, lindane is still being used in cacao-producing countries.
Supermarkets claim that levels of lindane in chocolate are going down, but they do not publish any test results, making it impossible for shoppers to know whether lindane is still showing up in their favourite chocolate. The last time that chocolate was tested by the British government three quarters of the samples contained residues of lindane and twenty out of twenty of food industry samples contained lindane.
Special Note: We have joined forces with an organization that has mastered an inexpensive 100% natural, pesticide-free technique that can help save cacao trees, increase yields and stop all cacao diseases, including witch’s broom fungus, in their tracks. We are currently available to connect chocolate growers worldwide with this organization in order to stop this blight on the world’s greatest food. If you deal with direct, large-scale cacao agriculture, and wish to stop cacao diseases naturally, please contact us at the web sites and e-mails listed at the back of this book.
A foundation report states: “Small farmers are at the heart of sustainable cocoa growing. Today five to six million farmers, many of whom live in poverty, grow more than 85 percent of the world’s cocoa. Each farmer generally owns two and a half to five acres of land and grows about 1,000 cocoa trees.”
As much as 70 percent of the world’s cacao crop today is grown in West Africa, which once provided slaves to harvest cacao in the New World. The Ivory Coast now leads the continent in producing cacao (and in fact is the world’s largest supplier of cacao), but Ghana from about 1910 to 1970 produced more cacao beans than any other region.
With 600,000 cacao plantations, The Ivory Coast leads the world in cacao production. Due to the intensity of cacao production in that country, sinister methods have been employed to enslave children to work on commercial cacao farms. The BBC exposed this in a documentary aired in the year 2000. The multibillion dollar commercial American chocolate industry is controlled by giant candy conglomerates who use Ivory Coast cacao. Therefore, they are directly supporting child slavery. This is yet another reason to purchase certified organic cacao or chocolate.
The following report appeared in the English newspaper The Express as recently as September 27, 2000: “Chocolate, it seems, carries modern-day slavery into our homes.” Documentary filmmakers Kate Blewett and Brian Woods had encountered slave conditions on cacao plantations in the Ivory Coast and produced a documentary called Slavery. Blewett and Woods had been honoured in 1998 with a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for their film Innocents Lost, about children stolen from their homes in Bangladesh and elsewhere and taken to the United Arab Emirates to be used as camel jockeys. In preparing a new film about stolen Indian children, some of which were made to work as domestic servants in London and Washington DC, the filmmakers visited about one hundred small cacao farms in the Ivory Coast, where they also found children being exploited. “We wanted a way of bringing it home to people in the West and not letting it be something people could watch and go ‘Isn’t it terrible what people in far-off lands do to other people in far-off lands,’ ” Woods was quoted as saying in an article published in The Guardian on September 28, 2000.
As a result of the negative publicity, the “fair-trade” chocolate standard has become popular. Fair-trade chocolate indicates that cacao farmers are being paid fairly so that they can educate their children and pay their workers. The US Department of Agriculture, the US Agency for International Development, the United Nations Development Program, the Smithsonian Institutions, Conservation International, the British Cocoa and Chocolate Association, the ACRI, and the French Cocoa Research Organisation say they are all working together to promote and advance sustainable fair-trade cocoa growing. All these organisations are essentially either large corporations or acting as agents of large corporations. Therefore they answer to financial interests first, instead of ethics and ecology. That means the best way we can influence their role is to create economic incentives for them by voting with our money. Essentially, our message to them is to create sustainable, organic cacao growing farms and make the organic, raw cacao beans available to everyone in the world through widespread distribution channels in order for us to purchase the original product, while compensating organic cacao farmers with reasonable prices and wages.
Our goal is to create demand for cacao farms that are healthy, canopy-respecting and organic, so that we can indeed save the planet with chocolate.
Continuing research into cacao cultivation indicates that it grows best and is most productive in or near its indigenous jungle environment. Small farms, of less than 50 acres, enclosed or enveloped in tropical jungle rain forest and grown with other diversified tropical tree crops produce optimal cacao fruit and seed. Pollination, under these conditions, is certainly higher as the midge species can reproduce in great enough quantities to do the job of cacao flower pollination.
“If we could sniff or swallow something that would, for five or six hours each day, abolish our solitude as individuals, atone us with our fellows in a glowing exultation of affection and make life in all its aspects seem not only worth living, but divinely beautiful and significant, and if this heavenly, world-transfiguring drug were of such a kind that we could wake up [the] next morning with a clear head and an undamaged constitution — then, it seems to me, all our problems (and not merely the one small problem of discovering a novel pleasure) would be wholly solved and the earth would become paradise.” — Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)
