It's a very real problem. I am waiting to see if one can find a comparison of metal contamination between organically sourced cocoa and processed chocolate, as some of the contamination may be due to machining.
Consumer Lab does these kinds of tests, not sure if it’s all you’re looking for but based on their studies, Ghirardelli’s chocolate has the 2nd least amounts of cadmium etc. I can’t remember the first, Cocoa Via maybe. Ghirardelli’s have 72%, 86% and 92%. I take 2 squares of 72% almost every night. I can handle the bitterness of the 86% but not the 92%.
Just takes practice… we love the 90 plus Cacao .. but it took knowledge and small bites ( savored) to switch my brain to 90+ cacao thereby retraining my palette.. to the best choice.
I had X'd cocoa out since I discovered Sally K Norton about 4 years ago, and quit most all high oxalate food. It changed my life! Got of the pain narcotics I had been taking since a back injury in '83. Before quiting oxalates I was going to have a hip replacement, a shoulder surgery, possible knee surgery, and was going to sell my motorcycles. After going no to low oxalate, all the pain is gone and I quit the meds, my range of motion is good, and ride my bikes all the time and nit selling them. Now I am trying to incorporate some of the oxalate containing beneficials back in at low therapudic dosing, and high cholesterol/ arthrosclerotic aorta are a couple of the reasons. My Cholesterol was 280 a few months back, so I have quit bacon, pork, cut all the meat fats back, cut the grass fed butter, cut back eggs, bumped up all the non oxalate vegies, greens, and brasicas. Also using some red clover tea, did lumbrokinaise high dose for 2 months but started having issues, so switched to, and been taking natokinase. I also use serrapaptaise and NAC, and have been using some PPC. I'm 65, garden,ride motorcycles, dirt and street, and am very active. I quit cocoa products about 6 years ago due to the heavy metal controversy. I have been looking at several different cacoa products for a month now, to try again, hiping low dose will help cholesterol, but not jack oxalate issues (pain and stifness are my issues with oxalates). I was eyeing the black forrest high flavonol cocoa powder. Do you have a recomendation on any cocoa product? And might there be anything else you can steer me to? .... I read most of your stuff and have followed your activity for a long time now.
hey Wilber I too have sensitivity to the oxalates and have cut them out of my diet after having a second kidney stone. I have plaque and calcium in my arteries and so I have been taking Coco via two capsules a day and I started
taking Ghirardelli 86% it only has in one square about 23 mg of oxalates the Ghirardelli seems to have the lowest amount of lead and cadmium and I sure don't want to have another kidney stone and going low ox has helped get rid of the stiffness and achiness of my arms and legs and hands. I also did start on Lumbrokinase I've been using Dr. Mercola's brand ( I had been using Nattokinase but I switched to lumbrokinase because I think it's stronger). what problems were you having with the lumbrokinase?
Yes, the little i read says that some comes from the fact that Cacao draws up cadmium from the soil as it grows. Then when the beans are fermenting on the earth after harvesting they get coated in lead laden dust. Residues from our heavy uses of oil and gas. Blech. Makes me want to have my own Cacao Farm and see if I can produce lead free Cacao with minimum levels of cadmium.
I have a mistake to correct especially for me! Consumer Lab just had a new post on Chocolates..Ghirardelli's 72% is not approved due to being slightly higher for cadmium approved levels but the 86% is approved due to much lower cadmium.
The highest rated bar is Lily's extra dark chocolate but it is expensive. The highest rate cocoa drink is a cannister of Whole Foods Organic Cacao Powder
Several authors of note in the know regarding herbal wisdom, have enthused about the benefits of Hawthorn, which is known as 'the friend of the heart'. Why do I bring this up ? Because the Cacao freezer 'choc' which I make at home, includes hawthorn, ginger as well as other naughty ingredients including honey rather than sugar .These kinds of synergies are so easily found in nature, and are let's be honest hard to resist ! I wonder if there is any research on the cardiovascular benefits of Chocolate/ Hawthorn combined .
Do the cocoa bars that are high percentages of cocoa 70 to 100% help? I love those. I can settle my craving for "chocolate" with much less than regular milk chocolate. The higher percentage the better. I think I like the one in the 90s the best, but I do also like the 100%.
Have also come across information that indicates raw cacao could regrow stem cells and help to keep us young. I try and eat one small square per day and love it. It is rather bitter as it is 100% dark chocolate with no added sugars so I eat with a handful of nuts.
When we talk of cholesterol being the key in brain tissues or eye lenses, we need to be precise about what kind of combined cholesterol it is. Pure cholesterol, as a stand alone chemical, is a white crystalline powder, mp. 150 C, poorly soluble in water, very soluble in many organic solvents. So what is being talked about here are all chemically combined cholesterol. Unless it is chemically broken down completely in the body, possible but unlikely, it has only two reaction sites - a free hydroxyl group and a double bond as part of fused rings. The first one is perhaps the very likely site where chemical derivatives can form - by reaction with free fatty acids or other carboxylic acids - from lipids, phospholipids etc, not sure of proteins and carbohydrates. It is those combined materials that can be the material basis for cellular gels, films etc present in the body. LDL is actually its composition with proteins and lipids. LDL can thus be a physical mix of several types of cholesterol combined lipoproteins and some of them could be highly beneficial also. We tend to look at all LDL cholesterol particles as one chemical entity, like carbon dioxide or water. This could be one reason why the picture of cholesterol in blood looks for from settled. More structural organic chemists must get into this issue.
Thank you, love the way you make nutrition feel compelling and accessible! One constructive thought: the beats pharma framing might land even stronger with a bit more precision. If you add a quick callout to the specific studies (population, dose/serving size, outcome measured, and the effect size), plus a sentence clarifying where this fits alongside medications rather than replacing them, it would help readers distinguish “promising support” from “substitute for treatment” and make the claim more credible to skeptics.
Overall, it’s an engaging post that gets patients and doctors thinking about food as a real lever for health, and with a touch more sourcing/context, it could be both inspiring and rock-solid!
All pharmaceuticals cure rates are reported in relative numbers not absolute numbers. For example, 95% cure rate for covid is not 95 people out of 100. It is 95% of the death rate. The death rate in children was .08, so it is 95% of the death rate , a non existent number.
A drug listed as 33% improvement is 2 people out of 3 . In a clinical trial of 100 people, 3 had heart attacks with placebo and 2 on the drug. It is not a 1% improvement but relative to the gold standard.
For flu vaccine you need number needed to treat, to save 1 person you need to treat maybe 150, I forget the real number
Thank you for including a result I can easily grasp: "76 vs 104 cardiovascular deaths (cocoa vs placebo)", all the other ways of reporting results are used by pHarma to manipulate us.
One of my favorite drinks is,
Coffee with Sunflower Lecithin, Cacao, Lion's Main, Chaga and Coconut Milk powder.
Royal Jelly tastes good with Maca and Sea Moss.
Thanks.
Does your coconut milk powder have anything else inside besides coconut? If so, can you respond with the brand. Thanks
Our body NEEDS cholesterol !
25% of our brain is - guess what ? CHOLESTEROL !
The lens in you eyes are made of - yup, cholesterol !
The fat / oils A,D,E,K are transported around your body by ? CHOLESTEROL !
Now, I'm pretty sure that big pharma know this but they STILL push statins for PROFIT !
So, if your body has very low cholesterol because of statins - you could end up with your brain shrinking leading to Alzheimer's or Dementia ?
You might get cataracts because of low cholesterol ?
You might have a vitamin deficiency of ADEK because of low cholesterol ?
So your health suffers and you see your GP who gives you more medication for side effects ?
and guess what ?
MORE PROFIT FOR BIG PHARMA !
I love the food of the gods. But i wonder about the lead and cadmium that is evidently in most of it. What is your assessment of that?
It's a very real problem. I am waiting to see if one can find a comparison of metal contamination between organically sourced cocoa and processed chocolate, as some of the contamination may be due to machining.
Consumer Lab does these kinds of tests, not sure if it’s all you’re looking for but based on their studies, Ghirardelli’s chocolate has the 2nd least amounts of cadmium etc. I can’t remember the first, Cocoa Via maybe. Ghirardelli’s have 72%, 86% and 92%. I take 2 squares of 72% almost every night. I can handle the bitterness of the 86% but not the 92%.
Just takes practice… we love the 90 plus Cacao .. but it took knowledge and small bites ( savored) to switch my brain to 90+ cacao thereby retraining my palette.. to the best choice.
I had X'd cocoa out since I discovered Sally K Norton about 4 years ago, and quit most all high oxalate food. It changed my life! Got of the pain narcotics I had been taking since a back injury in '83. Before quiting oxalates I was going to have a hip replacement, a shoulder surgery, possible knee surgery, and was going to sell my motorcycles. After going no to low oxalate, all the pain is gone and I quit the meds, my range of motion is good, and ride my bikes all the time and nit selling them. Now I am trying to incorporate some of the oxalate containing beneficials back in at low therapudic dosing, and high cholesterol/ arthrosclerotic aorta are a couple of the reasons. My Cholesterol was 280 a few months back, so I have quit bacon, pork, cut all the meat fats back, cut the grass fed butter, cut back eggs, bumped up all the non oxalate vegies, greens, and brasicas. Also using some red clover tea, did lumbrokinaise high dose for 2 months but started having issues, so switched to, and been taking natokinase. I also use serrapaptaise and NAC, and have been using some PPC. I'm 65, garden,ride motorcycles, dirt and street, and am very active. I quit cocoa products about 6 years ago due to the heavy metal controversy. I have been looking at several different cacoa products for a month now, to try again, hiping low dose will help cholesterol, but not jack oxalate issues (pain and stifness are my issues with oxalates). I was eyeing the black forrest high flavonol cocoa powder. Do you have a recomendation on any cocoa product? And might there be anything else you can steer me to? .... I read most of your stuff and have followed your activity for a long time now.
Thanks for your time in advance!
hey Wilber I too have sensitivity to the oxalates and have cut them out of my diet after having a second kidney stone. I have plaque and calcium in my arteries and so I have been taking Coco via two capsules a day and I started
taking Ghirardelli 86% it only has in one square about 23 mg of oxalates the Ghirardelli seems to have the lowest amount of lead and cadmium and I sure don't want to have another kidney stone and going low ox has helped get rid of the stiffness and achiness of my arms and legs and hands. I also did start on Lumbrokinase I've been using Dr. Mercola's brand ( I had been using Nattokinase but I switched to lumbrokinase because I think it's stronger). what problems were you having with the lumbrokinase?
Yes, the little i read says that some comes from the fact that Cacao draws up cadmium from the soil as it grows. Then when the beans are fermenting on the earth after harvesting they get coated in lead laden dust. Residues from our heavy uses of oil and gas. Blech. Makes me want to have my own Cacao Farm and see if I can produce lead free Cacao with minimum levels of cadmium.
I have a mistake to correct especially for me! Consumer Lab just had a new post on Chocolates..Ghirardelli's 72% is not approved due to being slightly higher for cadmium approved levels but the 86% is approved due to much lower cadmium.
The highest rated bar is Lily's extra dark chocolate but it is expensive. The highest rate cocoa drink is a cannister of Whole Foods Organic Cacao Powder
Several authors of note in the know regarding herbal wisdom, have enthused about the benefits of Hawthorn, which is known as 'the friend of the heart'. Why do I bring this up ? Because the Cacao freezer 'choc' which I make at home, includes hawthorn, ginger as well as other naughty ingredients including honey rather than sugar .These kinds of synergies are so easily found in nature, and are let's be honest hard to resist ! I wonder if there is any research on the cardiovascular benefits of Chocolate/ Hawthorn combined .
Do the cocoa bars that are high percentages of cocoa 70 to 100% help? I love those. I can settle my craving for "chocolate" with much less than regular milk chocolate. The higher percentage the better. I think I like the one in the 90s the best, but I do also like the 100%.
Please don’t call dark chocolate a sweet treat. It’s not. It’s bitter almost unpalatable.
And yes it works !
So a dark chocolate bar a day can keep the doctor away, just like an apple a day? Cool!
"A single apple daily lowered LDL cholesterol by 8–10%.
It improves flow-mediated dilation, a measure of vascular elasticity.
Cognitive performance in older adults correlates with dietary flavanol intake from apples, tea, and cocoa."
Have also come across information that indicates raw cacao could regrow stem cells and help to keep us young. I try and eat one small square per day and love it. It is rather bitter as it is 100% dark chocolate with no added sugars so I eat with a handful of nuts.
When we talk of cholesterol being the key in brain tissues or eye lenses, we need to be precise about what kind of combined cholesterol it is. Pure cholesterol, as a stand alone chemical, is a white crystalline powder, mp. 150 C, poorly soluble in water, very soluble in many organic solvents. So what is being talked about here are all chemically combined cholesterol. Unless it is chemically broken down completely in the body, possible but unlikely, it has only two reaction sites - a free hydroxyl group and a double bond as part of fused rings. The first one is perhaps the very likely site where chemical derivatives can form - by reaction with free fatty acids or other carboxylic acids - from lipids, phospholipids etc, not sure of proteins and carbohydrates. It is those combined materials that can be the material basis for cellular gels, films etc present in the body. LDL is actually its composition with proteins and lipids. LDL can thus be a physical mix of several types of cholesterol combined lipoproteins and some of them could be highly beneficial also. We tend to look at all LDL cholesterol particles as one chemical entity, like carbon dioxide or water. This could be one reason why the picture of cholesterol in blood looks for from settled. More structural organic chemists must get into this issue.
Thank you, love the way you make nutrition feel compelling and accessible! One constructive thought: the beats pharma framing might land even stronger with a bit more precision. If you add a quick callout to the specific studies (population, dose/serving size, outcome measured, and the effect size), plus a sentence clarifying where this fits alongside medications rather than replacing them, it would help readers distinguish “promising support” from “substitute for treatment” and make the claim more credible to skeptics.
Overall, it’s an engaging post that gets patients and doctors thinking about food as a real lever for health, and with a touch more sourcing/context, it could be both inspiring and rock-solid!
All pharmaceuticals cure rates are reported in relative numbers not absolute numbers. For example, 95% cure rate for covid is not 95 people out of 100. It is 95% of the death rate. The death rate in children was .08, so it is 95% of the death rate , a non existent number.
A drug listed as 33% improvement is 2 people out of 3 . In a clinical trial of 100 people, 3 had heart attacks with placebo and 2 on the drug. It is not a 1% improvement but relative to the gold standard.
For flu vaccine you need number needed to treat, to save 1 person you need to treat maybe 150, I forget the real number
Thank you for including a result I can easily grasp: "76 vs 104 cardiovascular deaths (cocoa vs placebo)", all the other ways of reporting results are used by pHarma to manipulate us.
Sharing this with my stroke doctor.
Besides all the harm Statins can do research found Cardiac Patients only gained 4 extra days of life
What about heavy metals like lead and cadmium in dark chocolate? Should I be concerned?
One of my favorite ways to eat cacao is chia pudding. Use a few dates to sweeten and eat it with fresh berries.