What associations do you have with the word "cocoa"? Personally, I have an early June morning before my eyes, the sun shines joyfully in the window, ahead of three months of vacation, and the aroma of cocoa that my mother has just cooked spread throughout the house. This smell and taste are familiar to us from childhood, and chocolate sweets and cakes are almost an inalienable attribute of any festive dessert. Meanwhile, cocoa and chocolate have become widely known to Europeans relatively recently. Although the first cocoa beans were brought to Spain by the conquistadors as far back as the beginning of the 16th century, for a long time the use of a drink prepared from them was a privilege exclusively from the highest levels of society. The ubiquitous distribution of chocolate, as a drink, was only in the eighteenth century, and the first chocolate bar was made in 1819 by the Swiss native François Louis Caye.
Cocoa powder - calorie content
Cocoa powder is a finely ground cocoa bean cake, left after obtaining cocoa butter from them. Thus, cocoa powder is, in fact, low-fat, bitter chocolate. Fat in bitter chocolate contains 54%, and in cocoa powder - 10-22%. Nevertheless, it is a fairly high-calorie product. In cocoa powder contains from 298 to 325 calories per hundred grams of product. In addition, it contains:
- caffeine 0.2%, which is much less than tea or coffee;
- theophylline and theobromine are natural stimulants similar in effect to caffeine, but weaker;
- phenylephylamine, or "substance of love," this substance is released by our body during the period of "romantic love, raises the mood;
- large amounts of iron and zinc - the first is needed for the synthesis of hemoglobin - a substance that carries oxygen in our body; the second is necessary for the formation of hormones responsible for puberty;
- poly- and monounsaturated fatty acids;
- folic acid - is involved in the synthesis of protein, supports the immune system, is necessary for the functioning of the bone marrow, helps to assimilate other B vitamins;
- manganese - is necessary for the growth and development of man, takes part in the processes of hematopoiesis;
- epicatechin - a substance from the flavonoid group, which has a high biological activity: increase the elasticity of the walls of the smallest blood vessels - capillaries, helps absorb vitamin C ; also according to the results of the study of American scientists, epicatechin can help get rid of such diseases as stroke, heart failure, cancer and diabetes.
How many calories are in cocoa?
If we are talking about the caloric content of cocoa as a drink, then it will depend on the way it is prepared, with the addition of sugar or cream, naturally, the caloric content will increase, on average, from 300 to 400 or more calories.