Willow Glen Resident
Community
Photograph by Vicki Thompson
Willow Glen resident Suzanne Nicholas, a stay-at-home mother, is an independent distributor for Xoçai healthy chocolate. With Nicholas is her 10-month-old son Brody.
Healthy chocolate allows resident to experience pleasure with no guilt
By Emilie Crofton
With Halloween fast approaching, many parents grit their teeth at the thought of all those sweets about to be consumed.
Meanwhile, Willow Glen resident Suzanne Nicholas remains guilt-free and all smiles and as she sinks her teeth into a piece of a Xoçai dark chocolate nugget, knowing that it's healthier than candy bars.
Healthy and chocolate are two words most people never expect to be in the same sentence, but research proves there is such a thing as healthy chocolate.
Eaten in moderation, cocoa-rich products such as unprocessed cacao powder and dark chocolate may lower blood pressure and improve the body's processing of blood sugar, according to studies published in 2003 by researchers in Scotland and Italy.
"I like to say that we wrap health in chocolate," says Jeanette Brooks, president of MXI Corp, which sells Xoçai (pronounced sho-sigh), a brand of healthy chocolates, throughout the world.
Xoçai chocolates are made from cold-pressed Belgian cocoa powder, blueberries and açaí berries and contain no preservatives, fillers, caffeine or waxes, Brooks says. Nicholas says these interesting facts drew her in immediately.
Tall and slim, Australian-born Nicholas used to teach ballroom dancing in San Francisco before moving to Willow Glen two years ago with her husband.
With a newborn son to care for, Nicholas took the benefits of dark chocolate to heart. Using her background in accounting and financing, Nicholas now works as an independent distributor for Xoçai, while caring for her 10-month-old son Brody.
"I love chocolate, but I also love health and helping people to improve their health," Nicholas says. "This was just so perfect."
She says healthy chocolate such as Xoçai contains high levels of antioxidants. ORAC, a testing method developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is the standard for measuring the antioxidant ability of foods.
According to data from USDA and the Journal of the American Chemical Society, unprocessed cocoa powder is one of the top antioxidant foods at 26,000 per 100 grams. That's higher than 100 grams of red grapes (739), blueberries (2,400), broccoli florets (890), prunes (5,770), and raw spinach (1,260). The USDA recommends a daily antioxidant intake of 3,000 to 5,000.
Nicholas says the hard part is shifting people's belief systems about healthy chocolate from guilt to pleasure.
"All our lives we're taught that chocolate is bad when it's actually really good for you," she says. "With this chocolate, you still get that satisfying feeling without feeling guilty."
However, not all chocolate candy bars are healthy. It is important to look at the ingredients on the label that might include refined sugar, fats, caffeine, waxes and other fillers.
When looking for healthy chocolates, look for dark chocolate products that have been dried and cool-pressed, contain at least 70 percent pure cocoa, cocoa butter and natural, low-glycemic sweeteners instead of refined sugar , according to Nicholas.
Convert Marialena Roussere says, this new information has her looking forward to this year's Halloween. She plans to indulge in a few ounces, without feeling an ounce of guilt.
For more information on Xoçai chocolate, visit www.xocai.com. To contact Suzanne Nicholas, call 408.297.7880 or e-mail suzanne@ YourChocolateBliss.com.
