Cacao beans are great! Chocolate? Not as good.

Chocolate, as you may know, is derived from the cacao bean. Ah, yes--but it is processed and sugar and other ingredients are added, thus diluting its benefits. And, you can get pure cacao beans in pills now. Still like chocolate? Sure, enjoy it, just take the real thing also. Its real Alternative Medicine!

"Cacao husk lignin fractions...showed unexpectedly higher anti [HIV] activity...amounting to the level comparable with that of popular anti-HIV compounds. The cacao husk lignin fractions also showed anti-influenza virus activity, but did not show antibacterial activity. These fractions also ...enhanced two activities* of vitamin C...The present study suggests the functionality of cacao husk lignin fractions as complementary alternative medicine."

Emphases added.

Info on Cacao, Not Chocolate, the Real Thing as Alternative Medicine! In: In Vivo 22, 2008. By: Sakagami, Satoh, Osawa, et al., Div. of Pharmacology, Meikkai U. School of Dentistry, Saitama, Japan, Dept. of Anatomy, School of Medicine and Dept. of Oral Microbiology, Showa U, Tokyo, School of Bionics, Tokyo U. of Technology, Tokyo; Dept. of Microbiology, St. Marianna U. School of Medicine, Kanagawa; The Japanese Asso. of Clinical Research on Supplements, Saitama; Maruzen Co., Ltd, Tokyo; Lotte Co., Saitama, Japan.

Note: 15 researchers worked on this project.

*superoxide anion and hydroxyl radical scavenging activity.

Editor's note: Thankfully, the use of chocolate as emerged in the mainstream of a popular ingestible as Alternative Medicine! The whole cacao bean referred to, is not even as beneficial as the lignin, though markedly better than chocolate candy. We await the emergence of the lignin!