If you’ve ever thought that anything chocolate-related is unhealthy, you haven’t thought about cacao! Raw cacao nibs, in its purest form, is actually a delicious superfood that has a ton of great health benefits. Cacao nibs come from peeled and crushed cacao beans. They naturally have a more bitter flavor, but work great in combination with other ingredients as you’ll see in some of our amazing smoothies at The Herd Juicery!

Check out this list of 4 health benefits of these nutrient dense cacao nibs!

Cacao provides antioxidants
1. Cacao nibs provide one of the best sources for antioxidants from a type of polyphenol called flavonoids. Consumption of flavonoids are also known to prevent heart disease as well!
2. The high antioxidant content and anti- inflammatory properties also makes cacao support healthy skin.
Cacao is low in sugar
1. Avoiding sugar can be super difficult, but we challenge you to swap out your regular chocolates and implement cacao into your diet! You’ll still get that chocolatey flavor, but for much less sugar. Cacao-chip cookies, maybe?
  3. Cacao has mood-improving effects
  1. Cacao is even known to reduce stress and improve mood! There are a bunch of compounds in cacao that can support this claim. However, a major one is its high magnesium content, which is known to contribute to reducing stress.
1. 4. Cacao improves brain function
  1. There’s more to say about those polyphenols we talked about earlier. Polyphenols, or flavonoids, can actually reduce your risk of neurodegenerative diseases and maintain brain function

Nutrition Label

One serving of cacao nibs is on tablespoon. In this serving, you’ll get 19 calories, 1.4g of fat, 1g of carb, .8g dietary fiber, 0g of sugar and protein, 23mg potassium, and 9mg magnesium.

Cacao @ The Herd

We have plenty of smoothies with cacao at The Herd Juicery, such as the Blue Monkey, Chunky Monkey, Mint Chip, The Perk. These are also some of our most popular smoothies at the moment because they are that good! We also have 2 lattes with cacao: The Fix and Shroom. Lastly, if the combination of cherries & chocolate sounds amazing to you, then you have to try the Cherry Bomb bowl! It’s made with frozen berries, acai, banana and topped with cacao!

Be sure to look at our 100% vegan, gluten-free and organic menu for a full list of ingredients and check out our instagram @theherdjuicery to stay up-to-date with all the happenings!