Cacao Benefits (besides the amazing taste)

Hi friends! It’s me, Taylor, back to talk about another amazing ingredient we use in Lil Bucks. To start this off I have to ask a serious question… Have any of you seen Portlandia? Ya know, the show with Fred Armisan and Carrie Brownstein? Well, if you haven’t, it’s the first thing that came to my mind when Emily was telling me about Cacao Lil Bucks. I still to this day have a scene from the show stuck in my head every time I hear or see the word Cacao. If you have no idea what on earth I’m talking about, please do yourself a favor and look up the Portlandia Cacao scene. I made Emily watch it one day when we were shipping out orders. 

All jokes aside, it’s not a bad thing to have the word ‘cacao’ stuck in your head all the time. It is my personal favorite ingredient that we use and my favorite flavor of Lil Bucks to put in all of my smoothie bowls! For starters, we use a raw, organic cacao powder that is certified organic, kosher, non-GMO, and naturally gluten free. 

Cacao Bucks are slightly sweet (with only 3g of sugar per serving) because we strive to keep the sugar content down so the cacao flavor can shine! I’m also a huge fan of the Cacao Bucks because they contain a little bit of cinnamon and maca root powder, making the flavor that much more bold. 

Our favorite benefits of Cacao (besides taste) are: 

1. Cacao is high in magnesium, just like buckwheat, so you’re getting an extra dose when you eat Cacao Bucks. Magnesium is a great component to keep in your diet because it has sleep-promoting, stress-reducing, and disease-protecting power. 
2. Cacao is made from unroasted, cold-pressed beans with NO added sugar, making it super nutrient and antioxidant dense (unlike cocoa, which we explain below). Raw organic cacao has 40 times more antioxidants than blueberries. Crazy right! 
3. Raw cacao contains Anandamide. Anandamide has anti-anxiety and antidepressant properties, and it’s a great thing to have when you need to calm down. Many people eat Cacao before bed. 

We often get asked, “Is cacao the same as cocoa?” Common mistake, I thought the same thing, too! Cacao is actually not the same as cocoa, though it does come from the same bean. Raw organic cacao contains healthy fats that help us to stay energized, making it a perfect post-workout snack. Normal cocoa powder and chocolates are chemically processed and roasted, meaning a large amount of the antioxidants and flavonoids are destroyed in the process. We like to keep chemicals and things we can’t pronounce out of our diets anyways. 🙂 

We could go on and on about the benefits and flavor, but you should taste and see for yourself! ??