I do the same - add a tablespoon of organic cacao powder from Costco to my coffee or smoothie.
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Ditto, though I don’t get up as high as 20g. Same brand.
Interesting factoid: cacao polyphenols last a long time (years), so the powder doesn’t really lose potency, unlike fruit powders, such as blueberry extract powders which lose potency extremely fast. Most OLE (Olive Leaf Extracts) on the market are worthless, because drying and processing the leafs is very tricky (not done properly loses over 90% of the polyphenols and rarely done properly, and then the polyphenols last a very short time in storage. I couldn’t trust commercial OLE supplements, so used to make my own olive leaf powder from my olive trees (which grow well in SoCal!), but eventually stopped as it’s too much work. Bottom line, if you get a good deal on a large bag of cacao (from a good brand!), you don’t need to worry it’ll go bad (just store it in a dry, cool, dark space).
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We have bunch of mature olive trees which are really for shade and perennial admiration
Never had time/motivation to do anything with the olives that simply drop each year owing to competing priorities.
Things are easing up so I wonder how do you make olive leaf extract? Or, if convenient you could direct me to a good link/youtube vid.
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I did that years ago, basically developed my own protocol based on a bunch of papers, so I never looked up yt videos or how random people do it. So I just now googled to see what’s out there - I don’t usually rely on AI, but I looked over this one, and admittedly it looks solid, so I’ve included a screenshot with the instuctions (there are links for the various steps, but you can ignore those, it’s the result that counts). Key points to emphasize: do not use high temps in drying, because this is what most commercial producers do (most: about 99%), and it destroys the polyphenols, so right off the bat you’ve lost 99%. Frankly, I used only room temperature spreading them over a sheet - but you have to control the moisture in the air, keep it dry (yes, a pain in the behind).
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Dangit, I wish I read that before purchasing the olive Leaf Extract from Amazon.
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While I do use powder, I think its also important to eat cacao nibs in moderation which include the cacao butter, which is the best source available for stearic acid. Its benefits are impressive.
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A follow-up question- how do you dose it? Do you sprinkle it on salad etc?
When I made my own powder, I put it in my 1-cup (so not much liquid) chamomile based “night drink” (which had a few things in it, like glycine) which I would gulp down around 10pm before bed. On its own it’s pretty foul tasting so sprinkling it on salads or whatnot would just spoil the taste of whatever it’s on.
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I have used the CocoaVia powder in the COSMOS trial for several years. I too saw a possible reduction in hsCRP, though a very small one. I had observed a very small rise in hsCRP with increasing age and had just begun to cross over occasionally into the bottom of the category one up from “low”. I have too few data points after starting Cocoavia to draw any meaningful conclusions before Long Covid intervened and confounded my analysis. I use it in my nut or skim milk coffee “lattes”. Delicious, no risk of heavy metals or other contaminants that are often in chocolates, and some positive potential longevity benefit. An expensive cocoa replacement, which may, however, have some meaningful benefits.
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