Why Raw Chocolate Rox for Athletes

The following is excerpted from my book, "How America Can Bike and Grow Rich" and the Podcast I did with the people at Sunfood, the purveyors of Raw Chocolate and other amazing super foods:

- Cacao Powder was once so revered by the ancient Mayan and 

Aztec civilizations for its power as a food that it was used instead 

of gold as money. What is important to understand is that as raw 

chocolate in its purest form, it does not have an 

acceptable taste on its own. Toward that end, most of the 

chocolate most Americans consume is cooked and so processed 

and so  covered up with sugars and other taste enhancers that its 

many benefits are negated. 

While cacao may not have specific  performance enhancing 

properties  like some of the others foods I mixed it with, it, when 

viewed as a food, in its raw form, it is loaded with vital nutrients. It 

is the highest natural source of iron, magnesium and chromium. 

This not to mention that it has the highest concentration of 

antioxidants of any food in the world. In addition, it is the only food 

that contains the endorphin Anandamide that relaxes the body 

after exercise. As such, it was my nightly RAW chocolate bar that 

rewarded me well for some of the punishment I pushed myself 

through. This can be further illustrated by the fact that for 40 

years, starting in the 1930’s, heart attack sufferers were injected 

with theobromine, the smooth muscle relaxant found in chocolate 

that also dilates blood vessels.