By Jennifer Love, Co-Founder of NibMor

If you are a chocolate enthusiast, like me, then you are going to be thrilled to learn that cacao (aka cocoa) is one of nature‟s most nutrient dense gifts. Did you know that cacao is the seed of an Amazonian fruit? That's right…and it was brought to Central America around the time of the Olmecs (dating roughly from 1400 BCE to about 400 BCE). How cool would it be if we could still use cacao beans as money like the Mayan and Aztec civilizations; who referred to them as "black gold‟ or "seeds of gold"? These civilizations held the cacao bean in such high esteem that they described it as "the food of the gods."

Americans may not revere cacao quite like these ancient civilizations, yet chocolate has become a very popular food in the U.S. We consume, on average, 11.7 pounds of chocolate per person annually. As I sit here and enjoy a few pieces of our NibMor chocolate, I fully admit that my personal consumption is bound to be much higher. I'm not the only one - world-wide consumption of chocolate is increasing at a rate of 3 to 4% each year. Associate Content reported in 2007, "The increased sales in chocolate are driven by newer studies showing that dark chocolate actually has many health benefits."

Let's take a quick look at the health benefits of the cacao bean in its natural state. In addition to being a good source of minerals and vitamins (especially magnesium, sulphur, calcium, chromium,iron, zinc, copper, potassium, vitamin C and some of the B vitamins), cacao is also an excellent source of fiber, amino acids, fatty acids, and antioxidants (30 times the antioxidants of red wine, and 20 times the antioxidants found in green tea). Many of the substances in cacao have been discussed in the scientific literature as pharmacologically significant. That is good news for chocolate! You may be surprised to learn that this gift of nature is also a natural anti-depressant and an aphrodisiac. Yes, you can lift your spirits and boost your love life by eating cacao.

Doesn‟t all chocolate contain all of these nutrients? No, and David Wolfe author of Naked Chocolate explains that when cacao is roasted (heated at temperatures above 118°); it loses much of its

nutritional content. In a nutshell, the best way to benefit from cacao's nutritional offering is by consuming chocolate in a raw preparation. Raw chocolate is chocolate that is unroasted, lightly processed and is combined with only a few natural ingredients like agave, vanilla or sea salt.

In a society where the top killers include heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes, all of which are heavily affected by obesity and nutrition, it makes sense that the last thing Americans need is another over-processed, chemicalized, sugar infested snack food. That is why we created NibMor. Our raw chocolate is power-packed with tons of nutrients and made for chocolate enthusiasts, like me, who have a high standard for taste.www.NibMor.com

Chocolate nibbles…
Power Mineral - Do you know what the No. 1 mineral deficiency is in the diet? Do you know the primary mineral that is missing when heart problems occur? Do you know which mineral activates almost all the key enzymes needed for our neurons to produce energy from glucose (in the form of ATP)? If you guessed magnesium, then you may also know that over 80% of the U.S. population is deficient in magnesium. If you are wondering what makes this mineral so important, the answer is its powerful ability to support the heart, increase brainpower, cause strong peristalsis (bowel movements), relax menstrual cramping, relax muscles, increase flexibility, help build strong bones and increase alkalinity.

Heart Health & Cancer - Fresh cacao beans are rich in the type of bioflavonoid called flavanols that help maintain healthy blood flow and blood pressure and are known in helping stave off cancer, heart disease and strokes. The flavanols in cacao, especially the epicatechins, prevent fatty substances in the bloodstream from oxidizing and then clogging the arteries. Flavanols help make blood platelets less likely to stick together and cause blood clots, heart attacks, and strokes - without the negative side effects associated with the use of aspirin (ASA) and other pharmaceutical blood-thinners. Cacao beans contain 10,000 milligrams (10 grams) of flavanol antioxidants per 100 grams - or an impressive 10% antioxidant concentration level.

Healthy Fat - While you may have been told that chocolate is "fattening", the truth is that the fats found in cacao butter are actually healthy fats! Cacao contains oleic acid, a heart-healthy monounsaturated fat which is also found in olive oil and is believed to raise the level of the "good cholesterol" known as HDL cholesterol (the acronym HDL stands for "High Density Lipid"). Research has shown that the antioxidants found in cacao have been shown to reduce the oxidation of low-density lipoproteins (LDL) or "bad cholesterol".

Depression - Cacao also contains the amino acid tryptophan , which makes the neurotransmitter known as serotonin, which promotes positive feelings and helps keep us from feeling depressed. Cacao contains the neurotransmitters dopamine, and phenylethylamine (PEA), and contains anandamide and MAO Inhibitors – ingredients that are beneficial for the brain.

Mental Clarity - Phenylethylamine (PEA) helps promote mental alertness and the ability to concentrate. The PEA in healthy chocolate may be of help to students taking tests, and to senior citizens who want to retain the mental capacity of a younger person and postpone the onset of dementia.

Caffeine – Cacao does contain the stimulating methylxanthines: theobromine and caffeine. In their raw, uncooked form these compounds have milder effects. Contrary to popular opinion, cacao is a poor source of caffeine. A typical sample of cacao beans will yield anywhere from zero caffeine to 1,000 parts per million of caffeine (less than 1/20th of the caffeine present in coffee). In a study done by A. Eminger3, examining 18 commercial specimens of cacao, theobromine levels ranged from 0.88 to 2.34 percent and caffeine levels ranged from 0.05 to 0.36 percent. In February 2008, Dr Gabriel Cousens discovered in clinical tests on healthy people that cacao does not elevate blood sugar in the same way as other caffeine containing food or beverages. Dogs – The theobromine, found in cacao, is a cardiac stimulant that has been used to treat high blood pressure. According to David Wolfe, one of the reasons why dogs should not eat cacao or chocolate is because it can cause cardiac arrest in dogs due to the animal‟s inability to produce enzymes necessary to metabolize theobromine in excess of 100 to 150mg/kilogram of the dog‟s body weight.

1 Cocoa is a British slang term for Cacao. Today's present-day meaning of 'cacao' includes all the ingredients derived from the cacao bean. Cocoa as defined by the U.S. cacao standards refers only to cocoa powder, i.e., the powder made by grinding partially defatted cacao beans. Some products in the U.S. use the term "% Cocoa" interchangeably with "% Cacao".

2 http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/343340/us_chocolate_sales_forecast_to_reach.html

By James Bernstein

james.bernstein@newsday.com

In a few short months a Huntington company has placed its NibMor chocolate bars at all five Fairway stores in the metro area

NibMor Group Inc., founded by Heather Kenzie and Jennifer Love and launched in July, isn't profitable yet, but the two women are enjoying themselves so much that money is, if not entirely secondary, then mostly so right now. That's because the product they make and sell is one just about everyone enjoys: chocolate.

In a few short months the Huntington company has placed its brightly packaged NibMor chocolate bars at all five Fairway stores in the metro area, including the one in Plainview, and at about 40 health food stores.

Kenzie, an actress, and Love, a business consultant, became friends after meeting at a nutrition class in January. In February, they attended a chocolate party, whose goodies impressed Kenzie, who is also a chef. But, Kenzie said, "I never made chocolate in my life." Nevertheless, the next day, Kenzie bought some raw chocolate and asked Love to sample it.

"We have to do this," Love said after a few bites.

NibMor bars are 70 percent cacao and are advertised as organic, vegan, raw and free of dairy or gluten, with no refined sugar or genetically modified organisms.

"She [Kenzie] would make the batches" at Love's Huntington home, Love said. "We did a lot of testing." They have a small manufacturing facility in Long Island City. The bars sell for $4.75 to $5.25, depending on the store.

Guy Chandonnet, Fairway's natural foods coordinator, said, "We had a lot of customers asking for an alternative to the chocolate we carry. We have organic, but we didn't have gluten-free or dairy-free. It seemed like a good-quality product."

Love said the company may turn a profit next month.

By Heather Kenzie co-creator of NibMor

A very good friend of mine recently sent me some criticism regarding agave nectar which we use to sweeten NibMor chocolate.  I wanted to put our consumers at ease by letting them know that we will always be on the cutting edge of health food research in order to do what is best for our customers, their families and our world.

So, I decided to go the source of and had several lengthy discussions with the supplier of our agave regarding the integrity of his product (Craig Gerbore of Madhava, who in fact, has written on the subject.  Go to http://www.naturalnews.com/024892.html for his article in Natural News.). He has assured me that their product is minimally processed as he visits the several facilities from which he obtains his agave on a regular basis and knows firsthand how the product is produced.  He knows that he is accountable to the small businesses to which he provides product.  

In a perfect world, agave would ooze from the agave cactus for us to easily obtain, however reality dictates that it must be extracted at a high temperature.  No less it remains a decent option to those looking for a sweet alternative to cane sugar and HFCS that doesn’t leave your blood sugar going through the roof.  Though agave is high in fructose, fructose is a component of almost every sweetener.  People use agave to sweeten food to their taste and thus use much less agave than they do sugar or HFCS (On the other end of the spectrum is brown rice syrup which is 100% glucose or palm/coconut sugar with which we are currently experimenting).  Agave is NOT a GMO and NOT a STARCH (agave juice is made from the fructans or inulin of the plant).  NO CHEMICALS are used in the process to create agave nectar.  In fact, the process is quite different from how HFCS is produced and I encourage you to read an excerpt below from a fantastic article on the topic.

I understand the public’s concern regarding the processing and tampering of real agave nectar.  We know that there will always be big business in the food industry that will continue to infiltrate and corrupt the whole foods world so long as we remain complacent.  Greed can drive corporations to do unthinkable things as in the case of Western Commerce Corporation that added HFCS to their agave.  Though we as educated consumers may not be able to stop them before the deed is done, we can actively keep asking questions, educating ourselves, and pointing the spotlight on those who aren't doing the right thing. 

Additionally, we must always consider the source from which rumors and attacks come.  It is interesting to consider who is influencing and also stands to benefit from a majority of the negative claims against all natural sweeteners.  That’s why I believe we must investigate who is the real source behind these claims against agave.  In order to properly evaluate the worthiness of a claim, we must have all of the facts in front of us.   It’s a fair and balanced approach to rising above the mud-slinging and actually getting to the truth.

And on that note, let's not kid ourselves- sweeteners should be used in moderation whether it is brown rice syrup, cane sugar, HFCS, agave or any other for that matter.  Americans have become obsessed with and dependant on the unending "sugar high".  We are so busy as a culture stuffing our anxiety, depression and unhappiness down with a donut.  It’s high time that we all took a step back and examined the structure of our lives, our relationships, our career, etc in order to understand why we need all that sugar to keep us going.  That's why we are NibMor- short for “Nibble More” not “Eat 50 bars More”!  In stepping back we may come to realize that if we just slowed down, spent time with family and cooked ourselves a healthy organic meal (and maybe even took a bubble bath), that we wouldn't need that donut. 


From: In the Kitchen with Mother Linda
The Murky World of High-Fructose Corn Syrup
By Linda Joyce Forristal, CCP, MTA

HFCS has the exact same sweetness and taste as an equal amount of sucrose from cane or beet sugar but it is obviously much more complicated to make, involving vats of murky fermenting liquid, fungus and chemical tweaking, all of which take place in one of 16 chemical plants located in the Corn Belt. Yet in spite of all the special enzymes required, HFCS is actually cheaper than sugar. It is also very easy to transport--it's just piped into tanker trucks. This translates into lower costs and higher profits for food producers.
There's a couple of other murky things that consumers should know about HFCS. According to a food technology expert, two of the enzymes used, alpha-amylase and glucose-isomerase, are genetically modified to make them more stable. Enzymes are actually very large proteins and through genetic modification specific amino acids in the enzymes are changed or replaced so the enzyme's "backbone" won't break down or unfold. This allows the industry to get the enzymes to higher temperatures before they become unstable.
Consumers trying to avoid genetically modified foods should avoid HFCS. It is almost certainly made from genetically modified corn and then it is processed with genetically modified enzymes. I've seen some estimates claiming that virtually everything--almost 80 percent--of what we eat today has been genetically modified at some point. Since the use of HFCS is so prevalent in processed foods, those figures may be right.