Cocoa butter gives you that smooth, creamy texture when you eat a chocolate bar. It is a fat that melts at body temperature. Cocoa butter, itself a mixture of saturated and unsaturated fats, carries many other ingredients with it when it is pressed from the bright, yellow fruit of the cocoa tree, according to Maud Grieve, author of the early 1900s book, A Modern Herbal," posted at Botanical.com. Some ingredients have a medicinal value when taken internally and the oil itself is an emollient, a skin moisturizer and softener. Always talk to your doctor before using any herbal treatment that you ingest.
Fats
Avoid saturated fats, says the American Heart Association, AHA, to lower your total cholesterol and your risk of heart disease. Most saturated fats come from animal sources or from hydrogenation, the manufacturing process that adds all the hydrogen the carbon atoms in the fat molecules can hold. But saturated fat is a key ingredient of some natural plant oils and fats, including palm kernel oil, coconut oil and cocoa butter.
Flavinoids
Food chemists reporting for Xocoatl, a website whose name honors the ancient Mayan word for the cocoa tree and its fruit, claim cocoa butter pressed from cocoa pods contains more flavinoids, reputed to promote heart health, than red wine. But Katherine Zeratsky, a Mayo Clinic registered dietitian reported in 2010, that if you get your flavinoids from a chocolate bar, the cocoa butter containing it will also give you 450 calories in a recommended 3 oz. daily dose of dark chocolate. The heart-healthy benefit from the flavinoid ingredient in cocoa butter may be negated by the extra sugar in your candy bar.
Cocoa Mass Polyphenol
Nutrition specialists at Vitaminstuff.com identify cocoa mass polyphenol, or CMP, as a cocoa butter ingredient that inhibits production of IgE, an immuno-globulin known to aggravate dermatitis and asthma symptoms. They cite Japanese research documenting that CMP inhibits cancerous cells and oxidative destruction of LDL, the "good cholesterol." Evidence was also found that cocoa butter CMP may protect you against heart disease and arthritic symptoms. Psoriasis, fibromyalgia and the chronic fatigue syndrome may also benefit from the anti-inflammatory effects of CMP.
Theobrombine
Theobromine is a medicinal ingredient found in fresh-pressed cocoa butter. It is often extracted and purified as a pharmaceutical, but most chocolate contains theobromine carried along in the manufacturing process. Theobromine, according to Xocoatl, is an effective bronchodilator, a smooth-muscle relaxer that can open constricted airways of a person suffering an asthma attack. Grab a couple of chocolate bars next time you do not have your rescue inhaler handy in an asthma attack. Dr. Allan Becker at the University of Manitoba, in Canada, as cited by the Disabled World website, says that cocoa butter and chocolate cannot replace your asthma medicine, but two chocolate bars, in an emergency, can relieve you long enough to get your rescue inhaler or see your doctor.
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