'In this video I discuss what is cocoa, the health benefits of Cocoa, and cocoa processing steps. I also cover cocoa beans, what is cocoa butter, and what is cocoa powder. Transcript (partial) To answer that question, we first have to start with the cocoa bean. Cocoa beans are the dried seeds of a cocoa tree. A cocoa pod is the fruit of the tree, and the pod is filled with a pulp and generally around 30 to 50 beans. The beans are then removed from the pod and fermented and dried. Next, the beans are cracked and the shell is separated from the nib. The nibs are then roasted to a rich brown color, then ground into a thick chocolate colored liquid. This liquid contains about 50% cocoa butter and solidifies on cooling. The solid is then pressed to extract the cocoa butter. The solid blocks that remain are pulverized into a fine powder to produce cocoa powder to use in beverages or cooking. Natural cocoa powder is astringent and very bitter tasting, and has a light brown color. Natural cocoa is high in flavanols. Flavanols provide antioxidant benefits, and are found in almost all fruits, vegetables and herbs. It is also high in fiber. Studies have linked Flavanol rich cocoa to decreased blood pressure, increased good HDL cholesterol, and decreased bad LDL cholesterol. However, most of the studies were done using mostly sugar free dark chocolate. Sometimes cocoa beans are treated with alkali during the production process, this is done In order to lessen the bitterness increase the dispersibility of the cocoa powder. This process is called dutching. Dutching greatly reduces the flavanols in the cocoa. The more it is ditched, the greater the loss of flavanols. Even when cocoa is moderately ditched, it is still in the top 10% of measured foods with detectable flavanols. Bottom line, cocoa has some very healthy benefits. The more it is treated with alkali, the more those benefits decrease. Timestamps 0:00 What are cocoa beans and cocoa pods? 0:22 How is cocoa butter and cocoa powder made? 0:57 Health benefits of cocoa 1:24 Negative processing of cocoa Other sources... http://www.webmd.com/diabetes/news/20110323/cocoa-rich-in-health-benefits http://www.life-enhancement.com/magazine/article/2798-effect-of-treating-cocoa-with-alkali-the-dutching-process http://www.livestrong.com/article/331715-cocoa-powder-health-benefits/'
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