Hot Cocoa....

Been having chest pains lately......and I think I know why.....it's the coffee again! Every time I take coffee twice or three times daily, everyday.....I tend to get these chest pains....it hurts so bad that sometimes I find it hard to breath......I tried to divert my attention from coffee today.....I forced myself to take hot cocoa instead....they say that cocoa has great medicinal properties that benefits the heart.....so I did an experiment, whenever I get the chest pains, I make myself some hot cocoa to drink....and slowly the pain just goes away.....believe it or not. Will see how it goes....I will do this experiment for a week or so to see if I can change from drinking coffee to drinking hot cocoa instead.

Cocoa does have caffeine but it's very minimal compared to coffee. A typical eight ounce cup of hot chocolate contains nine milligrams of caffeine, while an eight ounce cup of coffee may contain up to 133 milligrams depending on the brand. As such, caffeine is not a major health concern associated with hot chocolate. But....hot chocolate is not as good as hot cocoa though....because hot chocolate is made directly from bar chocolate, which already contains cocoa, sugar and cocoa butter. While hot cocoa is is made from a powdered mix of cocoa, sugar and thickeners without cocoa butter. Thus the major difference between the two is the cocoa butter, which makes hot cocoa significantly lower in fat than hot chocolate, while still preserving all the intrinsic health-giving properties of chocolate. Cocoa has antioxidants too. ...much more than antioxidants found in wine or tea.

The explorer Francisco Hernández wrote that chocolate beverages helped treat fever and liver disease. Another explorer, Santiago de Valverde Turices, believed that large amounts of hot chocolate was helpful in treating chest ailments, but in smaller amounts could help stomach disorders. When chocolate was introduced to the French in the 17th century, it was reportedly used "to fight against fits of anger and bad moods", which may be attributed to chocolate's phenythylamine content. Today, hot chocolate is consumed for pleasure rather than medicinally, but new research suggests that there may be other health benefits attributed to the drink.

So for now, drinking hot cocoa is definitely going to be in my list of beverages that I can drink...... :) Slowly but surely, the coffee will have to go!