A nutritional bar satisfies the need for a convenient, delicious and filling meal or snack for people who are always on-the-go, those who workout, or whenever someone needs a quick source of energy.

That is why in recent years, Dr. Joseph Mercola has spent quite a bit of time and resources developing the best possible natural energy bar. Because let’s face it, most of the energy and protein bars on the market are no better than candy bars as they contain far too much sugar, unhealthy fats and other questionable ingredients.

Dr. Mercola’s original cocoa cassava bar was one of his most popular products. But there’s always room for improvement. Because energy bars are a part of so many people’s diets, Dr. Mercola was highly motivated to create a new product that will provide real taste and real nutritional value.

Back to the lab and the kitchen he went and after more than three dozen recipe variations, he finally came up with arguably one of the best-tasting and health-promoting energy bars in the market today – the Organic Cocoa Cassava Bar.

Why You Can’t Go Wrong with this New Health Bar

The organic cocoa cassava bar offers great taste, excellent value and honest, wholesome nutrition. For Dr. Mercola, a nutritional bar must taste as good as it is good for your health. The new organic cocoa cassava bar provides just that as it:

• Is made using all natural, USDA-certified organic ingredients
• Uses high quality vegetable protein to provide essential amino acids
• Contains free-radical fighting antioxidants, healthy omega 3 fats, fiber, calcium and
   magnesium
• Does not contain dangerous high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners like
   aspartame and sucralose
• Does not contain soy, gluten, preservatives or sulfites

 
But how does a bar containing all these healthy ingredients manage to taste great? Simple – by covering it with not one but two sources of chocolate: rich organic dark chocolate and organic raw cacao powder. Throw in raw organic almond butter, organic unsweetened coconut and organic raw chia seeds (both white and black) and you have a chewy, moist, delicious and nutritious natural health bar that tastes like a leading coconut candy bar we all know.

The organic cocoa cassava bar is a snack that will provide you with convenience, delicious taste, longer energy, lasting satiety with the least guilt. Experience great taste and big nutrition in one small package. Grab one now!

The main reason why you should avoid processed chocolate is the high sugar content. But besides too much sugar, there’s another danger that you might not be aware of, and that’s the presence of lead, one of the most common toxic metals.

Raw cocoa is one of the foods known to have the lowest average lead content. Processed cocoa and chocolate products, however, were found to contain alarmingly high levels of lead.

Acute lead poisoning can cause digestive problems like constipation, weight loss and even death. Lead exposure is associated with many adverse health conditions like brain dysfunction and mental retardation in children, neurobehavioral changes in adults (including personality changes and a reduction in cognitive abilities and IQ), hypertension, chronic kidney disease and thinning bones.

Lead contamination is no joke where children are concerned because it can cause irreversible damage. The Centers for Disease Control pegs the maximum level of lead that can be considered “safe” in a child’s body at 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood. Damaging effects, however, have been seen at lower levels.

While lead poisoning due to consumption of processed chocolate rarely occurs, it doesn’t mean that you should give your child the green light to gobble up those chocolate candy bars to his/her heart’s content (the sugar is bad enough, but that’s another story).

Don’t put your child’s health (and yours) at risk. If you have to give your child chocolate or eat some yourself, choose chocolate products that are from the finest quality natural ingredients and have been made using the least destructive methods.

Dr. Mercola’s new and improved cocoa cassava bars are made using USDA-certified organic ingredients so you can experience the health benefits of chocolate without having to worry about contamination from harmful substances. But the cocoa cassava bar is more than just a great tasting and healthy chocolate bar; it’s a natural energy bar, meal replacement bar and nutritional bar in one convenient snack.

Eating chocolate should be a rich and rewarding gastronomic experience. Healthy chocolate products like the cocoa cassava bar keep it that way. Keep posted because this exciting premium product will soon be available online!

sugar

Today, sugar cravings are answered by hundreds of different processed foods. It’s awfully difficult to satisfy your sweet tooth without compromising your health because many foods and snacks contain artificial sweeteners, high fructose corn syrup and refined sugar, which aren’t exactly the healthiest of sweeteners.

That blissful feeling you get right after you eat that sugar-laced chocolate bar is actually a biochemical energy burst created by the spike in your blood sugar levels. But notice how quickly that energy surge or sugar rush dissolves as fast as it appears? Because sugar is not the best fuel for your body, there is an inevitable depletion of energy or sugar crash.

After the crash, your body will demand more energy and send internal signals in the form of sugar cravings, resulting in a vicious cycle where you turn to more comfort foods and consume even more sugar. This increases your tendency to settle for sweets instead of eating nutritious foods, exposing you to the risk of obesity, diabetes and other health problems.

But is denying your sweet tooth the only way to deal with your sugar cravings? Thankfully, if you feel the need to sink your teeth in something sweet, there are snacks that are using natural and unrefined sweeteners. Dr. Joseph Mercola’s cocoa cassava bar is one of those snacks.

Dr. Mercola’s cocoa cassava bars use rich organic dark chocolate, which in turn, contains organic evaporated cane juice, a healthier alternative sweetener to refined sugar. While evaporated cane juice and refined sugar both come from sugar cane, the former is not heavily processed and retains most of the nutrients present in sugar cane. Evaporated cane juice is also composed of fructose, glucose and sucrose whereas refined sugar is solely sucrose.

Both evaporated cane juice and refined sugar have the same caloric content – one teaspoon = 16 calories – but evaporated cane juice is sweeter, meaning you need less of it to satisfy your sweet tooth, and therefore take on lesser calories.

The cocoa cassava bar is a natural energy bar and meal replacement bar and uses only natural ingredients, unlike other food bars, which are sugar traps more than anything else.

If you’re in good shape, you don’t have to deny your needs for something sweet and delicious. As long as you consume sweet snacks like the cocoa cassava bar in moderation, they can be part of a healthy diet.

Nutritional bars

Ideally, a nutritional bar provides a solution for your need for a convenient, nutrient-dense, concentrated, filling and delicious food that you can eat anywhere. But don’t be easily deceived by the slick advertising and the hype because many nutritional bars are anything but nutritious.

When independent company ConsumerLab.com conducted tests in 2001 and analyzed 30 nutritional bars for levels of calories, carbohydrates, cholesterol, fats, proteins, sugar and sodium, they found that 60 percent of the products had misleading labels.

Many bars contained an average of 8 grams more sugar than indicated on the labels while others had as much as 2-to-3-times more saturated fat and sodium.

That was almost a decade ago. The quality of nutritional bars has improved since then and many products now satisfy industry standards for honest labeling.

However, this doesn’t mean that you can randomly pick any bar and hope that it would be good for you. The most recent testing showed that some bars have high amounts of total fats, which can be attributed to whole food ingredients like nuts. Other bars were found to have high levels of sugar alcohols, which are typically added to reduce the total calorie count because they have fewer calories than sugar itself.

Sugar alcohols have fewer calories than sugar because your body cannot fully absorb them and because of this, consuming foods containing sugar alcohol can give you abdominal gas, diarrhea, headaches and stomachaches.

Besides sugar alcohols, food manufacturers still use unhealthy ingredients like high fructose corn syrup and soy proteins in their nutritional bars because the former is a cheap sweetener and the latter is an inexpensive protein source.

What Makes for a Truly Healthy Nutritional Bar?

Because he has never been satisfied with even best available bars on the market, Dr. Joseph Mercola decided to create his own natural health bar. Dr. Mercola’s cocoa cassava bar is a chocolate bar, natural energy bar, healthy protein bar and meal replacement bar rolled into one – reasons why it has become one of his bestselling recommended products.

However, convinced that he can still improve his health bar, Dr. Mercola went back to the drawing board, did the research and set the goal of producing the most health-promoting and best tasting food bar in the market today.

Enter Dr. Mercola’s new and improved organic cocoa cassava bars. Like the original bar, the new cocoa cassava gives you the same balance of smart fats, protein and fiber, but this time, the new formula features USDA-certified organic ingredients, including organic cassava flour, organic unsweetened coconut, organic dark chocolate and organic raw chia seeds.

The “USDA Organic” seal means the cocoa cassava bar was made with only the finest quality ingredients and gives you the peace of mind knowing that you’re eating something that’s truly good for you. This premium product will soon be available online so keep posted!

All chocolate products start off as something natural because they come from cocoa beans, the fermented ground seeds from the fruit of the theobroma cacao tree.

For thousands of years, indigenous people like the Mayans used raw cacao to prepare a bitter-tasting frothy beverage to provide them with calories and boost their energy.

Laboratory analysis shows that there are over 25,000 disease-fighting antioxidants in a single spoon of raw cocoa powder. Unprocessed raw cocoa has an ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) value of 28,000 per 100 grams. The higher the ORAC score of a food, the higher the antioxidant content.

Modern day processing, however, robs chocolate of its potency. Because raw cacao is very bitter and almost unpalatable by itself, food manufacturers load their commercial chocolate with sugar and other unhealthy ingredients like artificial sweeteners, high fructose corn syrup, MSG (monosodium glutamate), preservatives, stabilizers, soy proteins and trans fat, among others, to improve the taste and texture of their chocolate bars and other products.

So is it still possible to find truly healthy chocolate?

If you love eating chocolates, natural health expert Dr. Joseph Mercola has provided these guidelines to help you choose a healthy chocolate bar:

1. • Look for chocolate made using the least destructive processing methods. Too much processing reduces or even depletes the chocolate’s nutrient content and can introduce lead contamination. Organic is your best bet.
    
2. • Go for organic dark chocolate. Chocolate which is closest to its original raw state (unprocessed cacao) will provide you with the best and most health benefits.
    
3. • Avoid milk chocolate. Adding milk or milk byproducts significantly reduces chocolate’s ORAC score.
    
4. • Choose chocolate with the lowest sugar content. Sugar is one of the biggest obstacles to good health.

If you’re looking for healthy chocolate, you can’t go wrong with Dr. Mercola’s New and Improved Cocoa Cassava Bars. One of Dr. Mercola’s bestselling recommended products, this natural health bar is now USDA-certified organic and now features a new formula, with the main ingredients being:

1. • organic cassava flour
2. • organic unsweetened coconut
3. • organic raw chia seeds
4. • organic dark chocolate
5. • organic cacao powder

Combined, these five form a delicious and nutritious chocolate natural energy bar. The cocoa cassava bar is also a good meal replacement bar because it contains a healthy balance of carbohydrates, fats, fiber and protein to give you an instant energy boost and satisfy your hunger at any given time during the day.

Chocolate will only be bad for you if you eat the wrong kind and consume too much, even if you’re eating organic dark chocolate. Always eat in moderation to get the most out of chocolate’s health benefits. The new and improved cocoa cassava bars will be available soon at Mercola.com so keep posted!

Nuts

Almonds are among the healthiest nuts you can consume, as it is a good source of key nutrients including antioxidants, calcium, fiber, folic acid, iron, magnesium, potassium, and vitamin E.

Almond skin contains flavonoids which possess antioxidant capacity and in lab tests, have been found to act in synergy with other antioxidants, specifically vitamins C and E, to protect hamsters from oxidation.

Studies show that adding almonds to your diet can help lower your cholesterol levels. Aside from being a good source of monounsaturated fats, almonds are a good source of plant sterols, compounds which are chemically similar to the cholesterol your body produces. Sterols are believed to decrease the absorption of cholesterol in the intestines and lower LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels.

Plant sterols have also been shown to help alleviate the symptoms of BPH or enlarged prostate, a condition affecting men over the age of 50.

In addition, eating almonds does not adversely affect insulin sensitivity in healthy adults or the blood sugar levels of diabetics.

Why Go for Organic Almonds

Almond butter, similar to peanut butter, is produced by pressing or grinding raw or roasted almonds into a paste. Many people prefer almond butter, crunchy or smooth, over peanut butter. Many chocolate bars contain raw almonds and/or almond butter because of the health benefits and because both effectively enhance the flavor of the chocolate.

But not all almond butters are created equal. Almonds are now being pasteurized to ensure their safety but natural health expert Dr. Joseph Mercola warns that pasteurized almonds are neither “raw” nor healthy. He points out that according to the Almond Board of California, no heat is used when almonds are pasteurized but instead, a process known as “terminal gas sterilization” with propylene oxide is employed.

Propylene oxide is a highly toxic flammable chemical once used as a racing fuel before it was banned for safety reasons. It is also used in explosive weapons. The Environmental Protection Agency warns that dermal contact with this compound, even with dilute solutions, can cause skin irritation and necrosis in humans. Propylene oxide is also a mild central nervous system depressant and a probable carcinogen in humans.

Can you imagine eating almonds or almonds in chocolate bars laced in a toxic chemical?

If you want to make sure that you’re eating healthy almonds, you can’t go wrong if you go organic.

Dr. Mercola’s new and improved cocoa cassava bars contain USDA-certified organic ingredients, including organic raw almond butter. The raw almond butter blends in perfectly with the dark chocolate, raw cacao powder, cassava flour, unsweetened coconut, raw agave syrup and raw chia seeds to give you a tasty and nutritious natural energy bar you’re guaranteed to enjoy.

The new cocoa cassava bar will be available online in March 2010. Keep posted and be among the first to sample this new premium product from Dr. Mercola.

A study which appeared in the British Medical Journal showed that middle-aged and older adults who ate frequently throughout the day had lower LDL or “bad” cholesterol levels – despite having a higher calorie and fat intake – compared with those who usually had one or two large meals per day.

The researchers found that the participants’ total cholesterol counts declined as they ate more frequently, with those who ate at least five or six times a day having the lowest total cholesterol, on average. On the other hand, those who ate only once or twice a day had the highest measurements. The pattern was the same for LDL cholesterol.

While frequent eating did not raise HDL or “good” cholesterol levels, those who ate more often were thinner, more physically active, smoked lesser and drank lesser alcohol.

The study’s findings are biologically sound. Animal studies show that those eating infrequent large meals have metabolism patterns different from those that feed more often. These metabolic patterns include a higher absorption of sugar in the intestines, higher after-meal peaks of insulin, and greater activity in enzymes that synthesize cholesterol.

But this doesn’t mean that you can snack on anything you want, especially not junk food. There are a lot of reasons why junk food is called junk. You’re wasting your money and paying for extra calories that your body can do without, savoring artificial flavors and chemicals, and, exposing your body to toxic and foreign substances that over time, will lead to disease and increased health care bills.

Snacking can be healthy if you’re eating the right snacks. It takes a bit of planning to find and prepare healthy snacks but all the effort is definitely worth it.

If you’re looking for something convenient, delicious, satisfying and nutritious at the same time, Dr. Joseph Mercola has created the perfect snack for you.

Dr. Mercola’s all-new cocoa cassava bar, a chocolate bar, natural energy bar, healthy protein bar and meal replacement bar rolled into one, will soon be available at Mercola.com.

Cocoa cassava bars are made using USDA-certified organic ingredients, and contains no preservatives or stabilizers, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, trans fats or MSG. You don’t need to skip breakfast, wait for your lunch hour or starve yourself after a session in the gym because you can simply grab a cocoa cassava bar to get the nourishment that you need in an instant, with the peace of mind that you’re not eating junk.

Start snacking healthy this 2010. The new and improved cocoa cassava bar will be available online starting March so keep posted!

Here are some of the most common misconceptions about chocolate and the facts to set the record straight:

1. 1. Chocolate causes acne – Breakouts have been blamed on chocolate consumption for decades but no studies have found a link between eating chocolate and the appearance of acne. A study done at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine showed that those who ate excessive amounts of chocolate did not increase their risk of acne.
    
2. 2. Chocolate causes allergies – Chocolate products are often blamed for allergic reactions but it is a rare occurrence that the allergen is the chocolate itself because only about two percent of people have allergies to chocolate. Most of the time, the other ingredients combined with chocolate, like corn syrup, milk, nuts and soy, are the ones causing the allergic reactions.
    
3. 3. Chocolate causes cavities and tooth decay – Cavities are formed when bacteria in your mouth metabolizes sugars and starches from any type of food, including bread, candy, juice, pasta, rice and soda, to produce acid, which then eats through the enamel of your tooth. Chocolate is therefore not a single factor that contributes to cavities. In fact, the naturally-occurring fat in chocolate helps chocolate products clear your mouth faster than other candy, meaning its sugars have a shorter time to interact with your teeth’s surfaces.
    
4. 4. Chocolate causes headaches and migraines – Studies have eliminated chocolate as a food likely to cause headaches.
    
5. 5. Chocolate causes weight gain – Organic dark chocolate in a meal replacement bar, when consumed in moderation, can be considered a health product. The average chocolate bar contains around 220 calories, which is still low enough to be included as part of a weight loss diet if other calorie-loaded foods are eliminated.
    
6. 6. Chocolate is loaded with caffeine – Sure, chocolate products will perk you up but chocolate is actually not very high in caffeine. It does contain theobromine, an alkaloid substance chemically related to but milder than caffeine, which helps stop persistent cough.
    
7. 7. Chocolate raises your cholesterol levels – Chocolate is rich in saturated fats but it is not a major contributor to high cholesterol. Chocolate, in moderation, does not negatively impact your blood cholesterol levels, and dark chocolate, in particular, can help lower LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels while increasing HDL (“good”) cholesterol. Studies also show that dark chocolate can help reduce the rate of cardiovascular disease, lower blood pressure and reduce blood vessel inflammation.

If you’re looking for a chocolate product that you can consume without getting any guilty pangs, Dr. Joseph Mercola’s all-new cocoa cassava bar is just the thing for you. Dr. Mercola’s new and improved natural energy bar is now USDA-certified organic! Along with rich organic dark chocolate and organic raw cacao, Mercola’s cocoa cassava bars are made using organic cassava flour, organic unsweetened coconut, organic raw agave syrup, organic raw almond butter and organic raw chia seeds, giving you one of the best and most health-promoting chocolate snacks in the market today.

This delicious and nutritious natural health bar will be available at Mercola.com next year so keep posted!

In the Mayan language, chia means “strength.” These tiny, nutty-flavored seeds were a staple in the diet of Aztec warriors and was considered to be a “running food” because messengers believed that they could energize and sustain them for an entire day. The Aztecs also used chia to treat joint pain and skin conditions.

Chia seeds are an excellent source of omega-3 fats, antioxidants, protein and fiber. In fact, it’s considered as the richest natural plant source of omega-3. Like flaxseed, chia is rich in alpha linoleic acid (ALA), which is an omega-3 precursor and is converted by your body to the omega-3 fats EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid).

Studies show that chia seeds contain more omega-3 than salmon, more antioxidants than blueberries, and, more calcium, fiber and protein than flaxseed. Chia is so densely packed with nutrition that eating two tablespoons will give you 205 mg of calcium, 7 g of dietary fiber and 5.2 g of omega-3.

Chia contains both soluble and insoluble fiber. Fiber-rich foods take longer to eat, are processed more slowly by your body and tend to produce a feeling of fullness with fewer calories, which may help provide weight loss.

Unlike flaxseed, which needs to be grinded, chia is ready-to-eat, highly digestible and has a long shelf life – it can be stored for several years, retain its potency and not go rancid.

Chia seeds are also free from cholesterol, gluten and trans fats and have not been found to be allergenic.

Because of its nutritional value, stability and convenience, more and more people are mixing chia seeds to their drinks, sprinkling them to cereal, yogurt and salads, adding them to flour for baking, or simply eating them as a snack.

Dr. Joseph Mercola’s New and Improved Cocoa Cassava Bars are now sprinkled with organic raw chia seeds. It’s not difficult to find organic raw chia because the high oil content of the chia plant acts as a natural insect repellent, thus eliminating the need for pesticides.

This natural health bar keeps on getting better. With a superfood like organic raw chia seeds and a host of all-organic ingredients, you can’t go wrong with the cocoa cassava health bar. The wait will soon be over as the New and Improved Cocoa Cassava Bars are coming in March 2010.

Agave syrup is known in Mexico as aguamiel or “honey water” and aptly so as it is about 40 percent sweeter than sugar. The plant matures and is ready for harvest at around 7-10 years. The leaves are cut off to reveal the piña or the core, which looks like a giant pineapple and weighs anywhere between 50 to 150 pounds

The sap is then extracted from the piñas, and the liquid is selected to become dark agave syrup, or filtered to create light agave syrup. Both the light and dark varieties come from the same plants and are heated at a low temperature without using any chemicals to produce the agave syrup.

Because of the low temperature, chemical-free processing method used to produce it, agave syrup is generally regarded as a raw food. The sweetness of agave syrup can be described as a cross between honey and solid palm sugar, and does not have the bitter aftertaste associated with most artificial sweeteners.

Since agave syrup is much sweeter than sugar, a smaller amount gives you the same sweetness with fewer calories. Raw agave syrup’s sweetness comes mainly from inulin, a complex form of fructose (the sugar which occurs naturally in fruits and vegetables). The carbohydrates in agave syrup provide sweetness without giving you an unhealthy sugar rush and blood sugar spike because it has a low glycemic index.

Aside from being a natural sweetener, agave syrup also provides some health benefits. The Aztecs combine it with salt to create dressings for wounds and balms for skin infection. Studies show that when applied topically, agave nectar has been found effective against pyogenic (pus producing) bacteria such as Staph aureus, and when consumed, is effective against enteric (intestinal) bacteria.

Organic raw agave syrup is Dr. Joseph Mercola’s sweetener of choice for his New and Improved Organic Cocoa Cassava. The new cocoa cassava bar features organic, all-natural ingredients to continue the healthy tradition started by the original cocoa cassava bar.

Dr. Mercola’s original cocoa cassava bars have been sold out but don’t fret because the New and Improved Organic Cocoa Cassava will be available in March 2010. They make an excellent gift suggestion for those who love snacking on chocolate and are health conscious at the same time.