Tag Archives: cocoa

Guest Blogger: Amy Preston, PhD, RD

The Hershey Center for Health & Nutrition

By now you’ve likely heard the rumblings about the positive health benefits associated with eating dark chocolate. A number of these studies have shown that eating this “Food of the Gods” is associated with improvements in risk factors for heart disease, including blood flow and blood pressure, cognition and even skin health! What many people fail to recognize is that the “active” ingredient within the chocolate that is likely responsible for many of these health effects is the brown cocoa powder – the same cocoa powder that you’ve had hidden in your pantry for years!

Natural cocoa powder is the end product from a pressing or extraction process that removes a significant portion of the fat or cocoa butter from the cocoa bean itself.  The resulting natural cocoa powder is usually a light brown color. On the flip side, alkalized cocoa powders, sometimes referred to as Dutched, come from cocoa nibs and/or chocolate liquor that have been treated with alkali solutions.  This alkalizing or dutching process is a safe and approved process and is used to change the color, taste, solubility, and functionality of cocoa powder in food products. The catch is that this treatment also reduces the naturally occurring antioxidant power of the cocoa powder.  Read more...