How To Make A Cup Of Healthy Hot Chocolate | The State
Cocoa is rich in plant chemicals called flavonoids with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.
Photo:
Edda Klepp / Pixabay
He cocoa not only is comforting, stimulating and delicious prepared as hot chocolate. It is a drink that according to scientific studies can really improve your mood, support your memory, improve blood flow and help protect the heart.
To prepare a hot chocolate you require few ingredients, it is simple, natural and can be very healthy without exceeding its calorie content.
The taste and health benefits of caco have been appreciated since ancient times. More than 3,000 years ago, the Olmecs considered them a gift from the gods that could only be consumed by elite people, later also the mayans and aztecs what they included is their diet.
The Aztecs called the drink made with cocoa xocolatl. The Mexican nobles cooked cacao with water and to sweeten it, they added wild honey or sweet maple juice, flavoring it with a little vanilla; while the simple people added corn gruel to make it nutritious, as explained in the magazine La Ciencia y el Hombre of the Universidad Veracruzana.
Drank like restorative to give strength and awaken the sexual appetite, treat fatigue, increase the weight of the malnourished, stimulate the nervous system of the listless, exhausted or weak, improve digestion and stimulate the kidneys.
Research reveals that cocoa is rich in plant chemicals called flavonoids with effects antioxidants and anti-inflammatory; and it has two stimulants, caffeine and theobromine.
How to make healthy and comforting hot chocolate
Ingredients
(2 servings)
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2 cups low-fat milk or unsweetened non-dairy milk (can be soy, almond, cashew, or coconut)
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon of honey (can be agave honey)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Grated dark chocolate for sprinkling (optional)
Preparation
- Combine milk, cocoa powder, and cinnamon in small saucepan over medium heat; beat to break up the lumps. Beat occasionally, until mixture is smooth and steamy, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Remove from heat and add the agave and vanilla. Serve in two cups and sprinkle with grated dark chocolate.
- A cup of this chocolate provides you around 170 calories
To carry out
When you have to choose a chocolate bar, dark chocolate is the healthiest. The Harvard Nutrition Source notes that dark or dark chocolate contains 50-90% cocoa solids, two to three times more flavanol-rich cocoa solids than milk chocolate.
A quality dark chocolate bar will not contain a lot of sugar. The higher the percentage of cocoa solids, the greater the bitter taste; choose 70% dark chocolate or higher. Preferably those chocolates that contain less than five grams of added sugar per serving.
It may interest you:
.
