Thank you very much for contacting us with this excellent question.  At Gnosis, our primary focus is health and nutrition, and we love speaking with informed customers who share that passion! 

Let me start off by saying that nutrition is a very tricky science and has the potential to be both right and wrong.  This is one of the reasons that there are so many contradicting points of view out there!!  Every body is different and, in the end, you have to listen to your own body to determine what is best for you. 

Yes, cacao contains the naturally occurring chemical Theobromine.  Theobromine and Caffeine are related, but have different effects on the human body.  First of all, the effects of Theobromine are not as strong as those of Caffeine.  Theobromine also affects a different part of the body.  While Caffeine stimulates the Central Nervous System (the control center of the brain and behavior,) Theobromine stimulates the cardiovascular system.  A Neurotoxin literally means something that has an adverse affect on the Nervous System.  Since, Theobromine itself, to the best of my knowledge, does not affect your Nervous System, at the very base of the word, calling cacao a Neurotoxin is invalid.  Theobromine has many positive effects on the human body!  It has stimulating properties, diuretic properties and relaxing properties.  Caffeine, however, can absolutely be classified as a Neurotoxin.  Here is a great article that breaks down the differences: http://www.xocoatl.org/caffeine.htm

It is true that cacao is toxic to dogs and other household pets because they're bodies are completely different than ours.  (We would not be very healthy on a diet consisting of dog food!!) 

Although very rare, there are some people who have an allergic reaction to cacao.  Many times, it is not the cacao that people react poorly to but the other ingredients in the finished product!  In conventional chocolate, milk and sugar immediately negate many of the positive effects of cacao (dairy binds to antioxidants, for example, rendering them useless) and add TONS of other health concerns.  Refined sugars are horrible for you!  This is why we do not use any refined sugars in our chocolate.  The agave we use is raw and unheated (read the full Agave Report here: http://www.gnosischocolate.com/agave-report/.)  We now use organic Coconut Palm Sugar, which is derived from the nectar of the coconut tree similarly to maple syrup.  In addition to being low-glycemic like Agave, Palm Sugar has a complete nutritional profile, offering vitamins and minerals instead of just empty calories.  For those who cannot or do not wish to intake ANY sugar (INCLUDING fruit sugar,) we have a Zero G Bar that is sweetened with Stevia!  We even sell raw Cacao Nibs with our other Bulk Superfoods; eating Nibs is surely the best way to see how cacao, with no other ingredients, affects your body. 

We LOVE fruit here at Gnosis, and often spend our mornings eating fresh, organic bananas, mangoes, apples, or blending up some smoothies in the VitaMix!  It is true that there are some people out there who do not agree that fruit is good for you.  Again, every body is different.  We would never say that chocolate is better than a banana or that you should eat one over the other; they each serve different purposes, fulfill different needs, and react differently depending on the person.  We love both bananas and chocolate (and sometimes, the delectable combination of the two!!)

What this video did not mention (which is so often the case in any report or video that attacks a certain food,) was all of the wonderful benefits of cacao.  Cacao, raw chocolate, has a high amount of Magnesium, Phenylethylamine (the alkaloid that makes you feel in love,) Iron, Chromium, Manganese, Zinc, Copper, Vitamin C, Fiber, Tryptophan, Serotonin, Anandamide, to name a few, and is super high in Antioxidants.  Yes, cacao has fat in it; cacao has Omega-6 fatty acids, the same exact type of fat that's in avocados and coconuts!!  Your body does need some fats, just like it needs certain sugars and calories.  There are many books and articles out there that go in depth and break down cacao at a chemical level.  We recommend Naked Chocolate by David Wolfe and Shazzie.  Please note that heating and processing cacao over 118 degrees significantly diminishes all of the positive effects!!  If you are looking to eat chocolate for its nutritional benefits, be sure to check with the company to make sure they take additional verification steps in ascertaining the raw integrity and quality of their source!!  (Our cacao is all raw and has never been heated over 118!  Vanessa has personally visited the farms where we source our cacao and has written the Raw Integrity Project.)

There are many different health gurus out there, especially in the raw food scene, and we have the utmost respect for them!  Celebrating a message of better health and well-being is incredible.  While we do acknowledge that a small amount of dishonest people are just out there to make a buck, we definitely believe that the majority of them are focused on and passionate about sharing wellness with those around them.  Vanessa started as a holistic health counselor, and began making chocolate infused with medicinal herbs in her own kitchen as incentives for her clients and to show them that good, healthful food and traditional medicines can be tasty and enjoyable!  So many people fell in love with her chocolate, and Gnosis was born.  She, and all of us at Team Gnosis, do not think of what we do as just "selling chocolate."  We, just like other people in the health industry, are spreading the word about healthy, nutritious foods that we're passionate about and beyond that, about a marketplace shift from cold, distant, processed foods, to organic, vibrant, live, love-filled foods with a deep connection to the farmer, community and the earth. 

At the end of the day, all of us with words to share can only make suggestions.  The best advice I can give is to take in all of the information, do your own research if you'd like, but ultimately listen to your body.  Try eating raw cacao in small amounts without making any other dietary changes for a few weeks to see how it affects you.  Personally, I eat raw cacao almost every day, whether it's in a smoothie or a bar like one of ours, and it makes me feel great (which is probably why I work at a raw chocolate company!!) 

I hope that this information is helpful to you!  As always, please let us know if you have any more questions.  We are all so passionate here about what we do, and LOVE connecting with our customers!!

Thank you again!!  We look forward to hearing from you in the future. :o)

Warmly,

Bridget
Team Gnosis

Although cacao is incredibly rich in nutrition - it’s one of the most nutrient dense foods on the planet - all confections available on the market made with cacao beans included unhealthy ingredients like sugar which undermined cacao’s healthful benefits. Because enjoying their new healthy diets was key to clients’ dietary changes, I began making chocolates using cacao beans focusing on both flavor and nutrition density, and I used low glycemic sweeteners rather than sugar.

Then, applying my training in herbal medicine, I also began including superfoods and medicinal herbs to the chocolate, making bars that with ingredients known to have a specific functionality, such as increasing stamina and cognitive function, or strengthening the immune system. As a result, my clients never "forgot to take" their supplements!  In doing so, I was listening to the words of Hippocrates who said, 2,500 year ago: “Let food be your medicine and let your medicine be food.”   

Over the last half-century (and thanks to David Wolfe), discoveries made by nutritional science are fueling awareness that certain foods perform health-related functions over and above the basic nutritional panel of calories, vitamins, and minerals. Some of these foods - goji and goldenberries, maca, and acai, to mention a very few - have been prized for thousands of years for their specific health benefits. As a result, foods naturally rich in such components as antioxidants, phytochemicals, and adaptogens are becoming staples on healthfood and supermarket shelves.  

Food manufacturers are increasingly blending these ingredients into their creations to create products that perform specific functions. Sales of these “functional foods - part of the broader health based/driven food market - are estimated to grow at 10% annually, as opposed to a projected 2% annual growth rate for the overall food and beverage market# .  

One example of “functional” food is our SuperChoc Bar.  We add maca, gingko bilboa, siberian ginseng, goji berries, and twelve other superfoods with targeted functionalities to create a chocolate bar specifically formulated to support cognitive function and stamina.  

Designing foods for specific purposes becomes even more important as more is learned about bio-individuality. People’s genetic backgrounds, metabolism, and blood types determine their nutritional needs, and the ability to create foods meeting almost infinitely diverse nutrient requirements may prove a real blessing.  The result is that functional food may become a major player in preventative health. 

Check it out! FOUR finalists in more than 40 categories go for the GOLD in this year's Best of Raw Awards. Honoring and Celebrating the People, Places, Products and Media of the Raw Foods Movement, Best of Raw is an action packed online contest designed to spread the word about raaawwww—The Sustainable Feast!

VOTE NOW at http://bestofrawfoods.com

You don't have to vote for every category if you aren't familiar with the name/company. But it would mean the world to us to gain your vote!!! <3

WHAT THEY REALLY MEAN: How do I know Gnosis is committed to ethical responsibility and fair wages for the farmers?”

 
Free Trade, Ethical Trade, Direct Trade.... and Beyond (GnosisTrade)

Free Trade and Ethical Trade provided the first socially responsible certifications of certain standards in the 80’s and 90’s.  At that time, they were groundbreaking steps in focusing people's attention on the fact that sustainable growth –  the very health of our planet – is impossible if trade depends on exploiting the marginalized.  Since then, challenges to sustainable growth have multiplied and become increasingly complex, making our insistence on high integrity standards even more crucial.

Our insistence on maintaining the highest ethical standards from bean to bar in these times requires Gnosis to define and verify our own high standards, and not look to (abdicate our responsibility to) third party certifiers that cannot know our industry as thoroughly as we do.  We apply these extremely high standards to our practices, products, suppliers, ingredients, and to everything that Gnosis is and does.

Since day one, Gnosis has donated 10% of all profits to the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation and support dozens of local and international causes. By choosing suppliers based not on price but on alignment with our values and standards, Gnosis means to support a larger movement towards higher quality food, a more sustainable model for food production, and a more conscious model for business. I will continue to visit farms and facilities, work with industry leaders to develop new and ever more effective ways to assure raw integrity, and bend every effort to verify that my specifications are followed to the letter because nutritional and environmental integrity is the foundation of Gnosis. I would never put a product on a shelf that didn't embody these core values. These truths are embedded deep in my heart.

Call to Action

The health and environmental crises will only be solved when our collective individual efforts, including voting with our dollars, lead the food industry to follow our demands - and they will follow what you vote for.  I sincerely believe it is a partnership between farmers, manufacturers, suppliers, and consumers that will ultimately lead to a healthier society and planet. Let's work with intention and action to fill those shelves with only products that are high in their integrity:  I invite you to voice your concerns to merchants and their suppliers.

I hope that this blog effectively communicates Gnosis’s intensive quality assurance, dedication to transparency, and its overall mission and methods of honoring the planet and all of its inhabitants - present and future.  I’m sure you join me in looking forward to the day when all stakeholders are similarly - and passionately - so dedicated.

It started with the Cat Cooperation Club...
When I was seven, I started the Cat Cooperation Club to raise money for a local animal shelter, and then, four years later, started the Desk Company to raise money for children in Africa. My fun was to create businesses as vehicles for my social action.  The Cat Cooperation Club was the first and Gnosis Chocolate is the latest and, so far, the greatest.

...and grew out of my Holistic Health Practice
As a student at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in New York, I heard internationally-recognized raw food expert David Wolfe, extol the virtues of raw chocolate.  “Maybe this is a way,” I thought “to replace my clients' sweet, unhealthy indulgences with a nourishing, satisfying, alternative that would improve their health and well-being!”  I whipped up some bars (splattering chocolate all over my kitchen) and started giving them out. Did I have a clue it was the beginning of a chocolate company called “Gnosis?”  Never.

Gnosis Chocolate is now my vehicle for caring for the Earth and Earthlings as we seek to help create a shift the marketplace towards shelves filled with only high integrity products.  As a company we are inextricably married to ethical responsibility and fair wages for the farmers.