The cocoa bean is considered a super-food, as it provides many benefits to your and your customer's health with its more than 300 healthful compounds. Cocoa beans can be eaten in their whole form either fermented or roasted, or they can be eaten after they are chopped into cocoa nibs. Here are some of the health benefits you and your customers can expect from these small, brown beans.

Improve Your Mood

Eating cocoa beans can help your mood and mental health, as they contain dopamine, phenylethylamine, and serotonin, acting as a natural anti-depressant. Cocoa beans also contain other chemicals that work together to boost your mood further. These chemicals include monoamine oxidase inhibitors, which help keep dopamine and serotonin in your bloodstream longer and further help you feel better, and tryptophan, which helps boost your body's serotonin production. 

When you eat cocoa beans, you can also get quite a bit of energy to help your mood, as a cup of cocoa can provide the same energy as a cup of coffee. The theobromine in cocoa helps to stimulate your central nervous system, relax your muscles, and dilate your blood vessels to give your body a boost of energy. And cup of non-caffeine-containing cocoa has an added benefit over coffee, as the caffeine in coffee causes your energy to crash shortly after drinking, whereas cocoa does not. 

Lower Blood Pressure

The antioxidant levels found in cocoa beans are higher than those found in green tea, black tea, and red wine. In addition to fighting free radicals found in your body, the antioxidants in cocoa produce nitric oxide, which help keep your blood vessels relaxed and elastic to keep your circulatory system healthy. Research has also shown the polyphenols in cocoa can lower and improve your systolic and diastolic blood pressure when you eat cocoa-based products, versus green and black teas.

Cocoa beans also contain magnesium, which help keep your heart healthy to increase its strength and condition to effectively pump blood. The magnesium in cocoa beans also decreases your risk of blood clots to reduce your risk of strokes and heart attacks.

Help Diabetes

If you or your customers are living with diabetes, eating cocoa and cocoa beans can help control their blood sugar levels. Studies have shown cocoa improves the body's insulin resistance and glucose metabolism. And also, the proanthocyanidins in cocoa helps prevent cataract formation in your eyes, which can be a common problem in diabetes patients.

As diabetes can also slow your body's ability to heal and fight infections, cocoa extract helps boost your body's ability to fight infection and heal.

For more info on the benefits of cocoa beans or to have them supplied to your business, contact a cocoa bean supplier in your area.