Cacao- good or bad

Robocok

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I love dark chocolate. I eat the alkali/soy free kind and usually try to avoid too much sugar (though lately I've been training a lot and craving sugar often)

Is it good for T or not?

According to one article, chocolate is bad for T.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.foxnews.com/food-drink/foods-that-are-killing-your-sex-drive.amp

These articles say it's good. What do you guys think?

https://itestosterone.com/dark-chocolate-cacao-testosterone/

https://legwork.guide/best-testosterone-boosting-foods-ingredients/
 
I've always been kind of interested in the effects that epicatechins from cacao have on muscle growth. The dose required to inhibit myostatin is supposedly pretty substantial and the amount of money you'd have to spend to get that dose could be better spent just pinning a cycle of test.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3857584/

I kind of see chocolate as neutral. It may have some antioxidant benefits and other properties that can produce desirable effects in your body/brain, but it also contains theobromine which is toxic to humans. I hate the taste of dark chocolate and all the milk chocolate you can find is full of emulsifiers, chemicals, and other trash. I just stay away from it these days.
 
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Yeah nothing else appears to back up that fox article that is really just an interview with one MD with no details and no sources.

But most of the evidence for a T boost is circumstantial - cacao has minerals, flavenoids, antioxidants, 'healthy' fats that are thought to have an indirect effect.. I see no reason why it would hurt T but I doubt there's a massive effect either. I say go for it, in moderation
 
I've always been kind of interested in the effects that epicatechins from cacao have on muscle growth. The dose required to inhibit myostatin is supposedly pretty substantial and the amount of money you'd have to spend to get that dose could be better spent just pinning a cycle of test.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3857584/

I kind of see chocolate as neutral. It may have some antioxidant benefits and other properties that can produce desirable effects in your body/brain, but it also contains theobromine which is toxic to humans. I hate the taste of dark chocolate and all the milk chocolate you can find is full of emulsifiers, chemicals, and other trash. I just stay away from it these days.
You can always buy epicatechin powder in bulk

Planning to buy some of the extract in bulk on Alibaba and mess around with it. Bought a few bottles from some company once and enjoyed it.
 
I see cacao as more of a drug. Historically that's how it was used.

It's not something you use every day.

It certainly has some very useful applications and mental benefits though. It is a low level Mao inhibiter and has a potentiating effect on substances its consumed with. Much like shilajit.

If you take it with certain herbs or nootroopics, even your pre workout, it can combine very well.

It's worth keeping around just to play around with various combinations

It's also high in magnesium so there's that
 
I see cacao as more of a drug. Historically that's how it was used.

It's not something you use every day.

It certainly has some very useful applications and mental benefits though. It is a low level Mao inhibiter and has a potentiating effect on substances its consumed with. Much like shilajit.

If you take it with certain herbs or nootroopics, even your pre workout, it can combine very well.

It's worth keeping around just to play around with various combinations

It's also high in magnesium so there's that
I've become more interested in the concept of 'antinutrients' that another user brought up in another thread and how many of the supposed antinutrients also fall into the restricted category of the aip diet which I follow.

Coffee is another one as are polyphenols which are a LOT of foods. My hypothesis is that these foods can have a place in my diet but she be consumed intelligently with regard to time.

Resveratrol is a polyphenol and I read somewhere once that while good for you in a way, it could also interfere with gym gains. I'll see if I can find some stuff to link.

http://www.thenaturalman.net/2017/06/03/raw-cacao-dangers/

http://eatgenius.com/chocolate-a-double-edged-sword/

So the idea behind antinutrients is that plants, especially in their raw form, have natural defensive mechanisms where they inhibit the absorption of certain nutrients so cashews, which are also fairly high in magnesium, have a natural defensive response that inhibits your absorption of the magnesium as well as nutrients from whatever other foods you ate so that you poop the seeds out with more nutrients in your waste.

So yeah, I don't know for sure to what degree they can still cause that antinutrient effect after they've been roasted but I do go for periods without coffee and chocolate on the advice of this old Romanian guy I met a few years ago. I had a blood test and my bilirubin count was high so I read up on it and it's a result of my kidney and liver not cleaning my blood well enough.

I was drinking a lot of coffee at the time and was feeling like shit not understanding the connection until he explained that coffee and chocolate can stress out your liver and you should take breaks for a few days to a week every now and then. So that's what I'm doing now. I'm off coffee and cocoa for the last few days.

The end
 
Hey Robocok, to be clear I'm not taking-the-piss/trolling (I've been enjoying your posts on here and S&C lately), but that study pretty much says the opposite i.e. RSV mitigates muscle deconditioning (not building).
Oops, thanks.
 
Chocolate being bad for T should be your least worry. Training volume and sleep and overal healthy dieting.

I like it. It's a drug hence it's bitter and needs to be mixed with sugar. It's a light drug like black tea
 
Just whatever you do don't buy Navitas Cacao....

High cadmium and only about half of the flavanols claimed on the label
 
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I see cacao as more of a drug. Historically that's how it was used.

It's not something you use every day.

It certainly has some very useful applications and mental benefits though. It is a low level Mao inhibiter and has a potentiating effect on substances its consumed with. Much like shilajit.

If you take it with certain herbs or nootroopics, even your pre workout, it can combine very well.

It's worth keeping around just to play around with various combinations

It's also high in magnesium so there's that

Cacao and coffee were both used daily in moderation in the past, and both abused by some in the past and present as well.

Coffee is one of the most popular drugs on the planet. Daily moderate use by adults is generally fine with no issues and certain benefits. Excessive use can be an issue.
 
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Cacao and coffee were both used daily in moderation in the past, and both abused by some in the past and present as well.

Coffee is one of the most popular drugs on the planet. Daily moderate use by adults is generally fine with no issues and certain benefits. Excessive use can be an issue.
I read on the interwebs that it's good for the brain.

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It depends on how your body reacts. For me, cacao worked perfectly. Try it out and see, if you ask me.
 
I like cacao chocolate so much, but as I eat no sugar, it's nearly impossible to find good chocolate.
 
For it to be good you need very dark chocolate. 85% at least, otherwise you are eating candy.

A little bit of dark chocolate is healthy from what I have read.
 
Just whatever you do don't buy Navitas Cacao....

High cadmium and only about half of the flavanols claimed on the label
Well shit I just went to Whole Foods the other day and got that powder. Any brand u recommend?
 
I've read that cacao helps to stimulate the metabolism, if you don't combine it with milk
 
If you drink it twice a week then it's okay. It contains a lot of sugar so better to be careful with it.
 
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