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The Benefits of Cocoa Butter
Cocoa butter seems to be an A-List celebrity in the world of health and beauty news these days. Bloggers and reporters are always revealing new benefits of cocoa butter in both its edible and spreadable forms. And really, what’s not to love? Cocoa butter tastes delicious and smells great, so why not continue to find newer and better uses for this natural emollient?
In case you haven’t brushed up on the beneficial properties of cocoa butter, here’s a little refresher course on why there’s such a big buzz around this little bean extract.
- Cocoa butter is, first and foremost, arguably one of the best natural emollients to be found. It’s a traditional moisturizer, as the EGCG blog points out, used for centuries to keep people’s skin in many nations soft and protected. And because it melts at body temperature, it is more easily and readily absorbed by the skin. Its natural, subtle chocolate scent also makes your skin smell like dessert, and who doesn’t want to smell like a cupcake?
- Although cocoa butter does contain saturated fat, Chocolate and Health explains that not all saturated fats are the same. Approximately 36% of the fat in cocoa butter is “good” fat – the unsaturated kind that contains oleic acid, which is also found in olive oil. A large part of cocoa butter’s saturated fat comes from stearic acid, which is responsible for converting “bad” fat to “good” fat when it gets metabolized in the body. So foods with cocoa butter in them can actually help lower your cholesterol. Now, that is delicious.
- Fresholi Bites has a genius use for cocoa butter: massages. Apparently, studies have shown that a relaxing massage with cocoa butter does more than just soothe tired muscles. It can also help give a much-needed boost to your immune system in the flu-plagued winter months, and possibly even prevent cancer. That’s because cocoa butter contains CMP’s (cocoa mass polyphenol), which Japanese researchers report can slow the growth of cancer cells.
- The-F-Word blog has an extensive and informative post about chocolate as used in candy. Apparently, cocoa butter doesn’t just taste amazing, it also has the ability to protect the anti-oxidants in chocolate that have been so widely touted recently.
We’ve been up on the benefits of cocoa butter for a while now, which is why we actually created a whole line of products around this natural skin softener. And because cocoa butter is such a universal source for skin care, we were able to source the cocoa butter we use in our products in the spirit of our Community Trade core value. That’s good news for our suppliers, the environment, and your skin, and there’s nothing better than that to give you an inner and outer glow.
