Journal
Are you feeding your gut bacteria?
Inspice Cacao Nibs Chai is a chocolate-flavoured chai blended generously with cacao nibs, the superfood drawing so much attention. You can enjoy the rich, mellow scent and flavour of spice and cacao together.
Here is the spice blend.
What are cacao nibs?
After cacao beans are fermented, the skins are removed and what is left is the endosperm of the bean. That is what we call cacao nibs. Cacao nibs, the raw material for chocolate and cocoa, contain a good deal of distinctive nutrients, and have the power to support health and beauty.
The distinctive components of cacao nibs
Polyphenol
Settles the condition of the gut; antioxidant and antibacterial; holds down bad cholesterol; widens the blood vessels and improves the flow of blood.
Dietary fibre
Settles the condition of the gut and works to prevent a range of lifestyle-related diseases. It also cleanses the gut and improves regularity.
Theobromine
Settles the autonomic nervous system; a relaxing effect and better concentration can be expected.
Minerals
One of the five major nutrients, indispensable for maintaining and regulating how the body works.
In modern life, the barrier of the gut is being broken down.
Cacao nibs can be looked to for a range of effects on health, but what Inspice looks at most closely is the approach they offer to improving the condition of the gut.
In recent years the word chōkatsu, caring for the gut, has been heard often. The reason so much attention gathers there is that our modern lives are set up in a way that makes the condition of the gut easy to worsen.
Too much stress, a diet unbalanced in nutrients, an environment kept too hygienic, the taking of medicines such as antibiotics — these cause the gut bacteria the body cannot do without for keeping health to fall in number and grow inactive. When they can no longer do their proper work, various harms to health arise: a lower rate of absorption of nutrients, a lack of vitamins, weaker protection against harmful bacteria.
As the barrier of the gut built by the gut bacteria is broken through, it brings on inflammation across the whole body, and becomes a cause of tiredness, allergies, decline in cognitive function, and the five major adult diseases.
Are you feeding your gut bacteria?
So what is needed in order to settle the condition of the gut? These steps matter.
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(1) Invite the gut bacteria in. (2) Make them welcome. |
(1) is the habit of taking into the body the bacteria known as good bacteria. Eat fermented foods — natto, kimchi, miso, yoghurt, cheese.
(2) is the habit of taking in the dietary fibre and the nutrients that become food for the gut bacteria. And here, at last, cacao nibs come into it.
Gut bacteria eat dietary fibre and multiply. Cacao nibs contain plenty of good-quality dietary fibre. Dietary fibre comes in soluble and insoluble kinds, and almost all of the fibre in cacao nibs is the insoluble kind.
Each does different work in the gut, so taking both in good balance matters.
The polyphenol in cacao nibs, moreover, is 17 times the amount contained in the same quantity of red wine. Polyphenol is drawing attention as an active component that repairs and improves the mucous membrane of the gut.
Spice and cacao nibs, working together
Cacao nibs are very welcome for improving the condition of the gut, and together with the spices in the chai they work in concert to promote health further still. For what the spices in Inspice Chai do and what marks each of them out, see here.
