Americans consume about 3 billion pounds of chocolate each and every year.
This may sound pretty bad at first, but eating the right kind of chocolate has been proven to...
- Reduce risks of cardiovascular disease and stroke
- Improve your blood pressure
- Help stabilize your blood sugar
- Show more benefits than red wine and tea, because it contains even more antioxidants
- Be a potent anti-inflammatory
But here's the "catch":
These benefits come from the consumption of dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa content), not the sugary milk chocolate stuff that most people usually consume.
So basically, the more cocoa your chocolate contains, the healthier it is.
Mike Geary, author of 101 Sneaky Tricks to Lose Fat Fast allowed me to share his recipe for healthy, homemade hot cocoa with you below...just look at how easy it is to add a TON of extra nutrients in your diet without feeling like you're depriving yourself all the "good stuff":
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1. Buy some unsweetened organic cocoa powder (NOT the pre-packaged stuff that is usually loaded with sugar, corn syrup solids, and hydrogenated oils) and mix a heaping Tbsp of organic cocoa with 10-12 oz of unsweetened almond milk in a small saucepan over very LOW heat.
2. Using a whisk can help blend the cocoa evenly. I like to add 2-3 tbsp of coconut cream from a can to add more healthy fats (a source of MCTs) to this delicious healthy hot cocoa.
3. Add some stevia and a touch of vanilla extract while stirring over the low heat, and in a few minutes, you’ll have a delicious, creamy, frothy mug of healthy hot cocoa -- WITHOUT all of the sugar and trans fats that are loaded into a typical pre-packaged hot cocoa mix.
4. You can also add a half scoop of your favorite vanilla or chocolate protein powder while stirring this mix together on the stove.
5. In the final drink concoction, you’ll get the satisfying shot of chocolate along with muscle-feeding, fat-burning protein, a nice dose of fiber from the cocoa, healthy fats from the coconut cream (including powerful medium chain triglycerides), and a mega-shot of healthy antioxidants overall too!
You end up with a super healthy hot cocoa that has virtually no sugar, so you can avoid the wild blood sugar spike you get with normal hot cocoa.