Cocoa powder vs. Cacao powder
 

Can anyone tell me if they are compatible...interchangeable? I accidentally got the wrong one, thinking they were one and the same. Now I don't know what to do with the Cacao powder.

My understanding is that they are similar but cacao powder hasn't gone through dutch processing which neutralizes the acids. Here's a link for a better explanation of natural versus dutch processed http://www.joyofbaking.com/cocoa.html#ixzz1FSltJ9zn The recipes I've seen for cacao have been for smoothies or raw vegan desserts. Some believe that cooking destroys the nutritional benefits of cacao. I can't have chocolate so I haven't worked with cacao.

Thank you both! I already learned one thing that is important...Cacao has the highest form of magnesium of all foods. Just what I need. A blood draw last week showed I am still low in magnesium. My cardiologist said for me to eat high magnesium foods, since the MagOx 400 supplements are not enough to be effective. I have been taking 2 daily for at least 2 years. I didn't know what foods to add to my diet.

GrammieJan - While MagOx is inexpensive, it's also one of the hardest types of Magnesium supplement to absorb. It can be like flushing your money down the toilet when your body purges it unprocessed.

Try a Magnesium Glycinate or one of these other ones:
http://www.naturalnews.com/046401_ma...bsorption.html - pay attention to the benefits and side effect though. The citrate especially!

If a blood draw is showing that you're low - there's a very good chance that you're very low (but there's a good chance your doctor doesn't realize that - I have tons of pages of medical publications that back it up but most doctors are operating on 15 year old information. My GP told me that magnesium deficiency is "very rare" - it's not. It's considered the "new epidemic". At least your cardiologist is testing though.) - the 1% that's in the serum is tightly regulated because it's responsible for the relaxation part of the heart beat and other vital functions. If the blood runs low, it's pulled immediately from the tissues and cells. Blood serum tests are thought to give an incomplete picture because of this and because the "normal" range is thought to be too high for the low end. Your reserves can be depleted but a mag test might even show low normal or even mid-range normal. The better tests are to test the levels in cells or tissue but those test are expensive and not widely available.

I supplement with the Mag/Glycinate from Pure Encapsulations - my chiropractor carries it, Epsom Salt foot soaks and diet - dark leafy greens, nuts, seeds (especially pumpkin seeds), fish, beans, whole grains, avocados, bananas, dried fruit, dark chocolate, etc - just to keep a low "normal" test result. Yogurt can be another one but I can't have milk. This regime manages muscle tremors, and problems with my nervous system (including heartbeat irregularities) and cognitive issues but if I fall off it for more than 2 days, I start to suffer - it starts with sudden motion sickness and deteriorates from there.

I'm glad you asked about the difference between the cocoa and cacao! I had thought that they were just different spellings of the same product, one being closer to the name of the plant from which it's derived. I can't have cocoa - it gives me migraines, but I may try the cacao though since most things that seem to bother me tend to be as a result of (over)processing.

Thanks for the info here!!

Great Info Tammi. I have been on the magnesium trail since I was diagnosed with osteoporosis and don't want to take the prescription drugs. I like magnesium citrate because of exactly what you said to notice! But I have that problem too so I take Calm with Calcium which is a powder so I can regulate the consequences. Hard to get everything in the correct proportions.

Good info about cacao - will look for it - easier way to get the magnesium!! Of course in appropriate doses.

I'd say you're on the right track. The reading I did said that magnesium is great for Osteoporosis because the straight calcium we were told to take previously was making our bones harder which would make them tend to break instead of giving a little in a damage situation. The magnesium should offer some of the flex back to the bones providing a better balance of strength and resiliency. Osteoporosis looks like it runs in my family, so it's one of the things I keep on my radar.

The magnesium helps us become the limber pine and move and bend with the wind rather than the more rigid tree that breaks in half during the wind storm. :)

i got a lot of my information from the National Osteoporosis Foundation website and joined their forum called "Inspire". There is a lot of good information on it. Some folks provide real,research studies vs information from places selling products. A lot to sift through but I came up with a protocol for myself. Main thing - don't fall!!

Don't fall is good advice! ;) I get a lot of my info from here:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?...ium+deficiency

Most of it is full length articles you can read. Some is hard to digest but some is very enlightening. The unfortunate part is that a lot of doctors will work on the information they were taught in school (which is already often outdated) and don't go looking for new information. This is especially true for GPs who are often overrun and by their very nature can't specialize and keep up with all of the advancements in the fields. That's where we have to supplement and bring some of the information to the doctors when they can't find a reason for symptoms. Probably 90% of the symptoms I've had in the past couple of years can be explained by magnesium deficiency and treated. The GP just gave up when all he could find was anemia. Those 2 are related too.