Happy Easter you guys!
Whatever your religious beliefs, most of us tend to indulge in a bit of chocolate over the Easter break. And I am definitely not an exception! Right now, I am basically experiencing what can only be described as a chocolate coma.
As a vegan, my Easter treats are a little more limited but there are still plenty of dairy-free goodies for me to get my chocolate on. And it just keeps getting easier to buy animal-friendly chocolate too - there are even vegan Easter eggs! Like this yummy Organic Times dark chocolate egg:
Nom!
It is important to note that not all dark chocolate is necessarily vegan - you have to read the label to make sure it doesn't contain milk solids or butter fats. The higher the percentage of cocoa, the more likely it is that it will be dairy free (but this still isn't a guarantee). It is worth searching for though and at least you know that, while you might be being a little bit naughty, at least you are getting a nice dose of antioxidants at the same time!
There is also another issue with our Easter noms that has got a lot more attention this Easter - the use of palm oil.
The use of palm oil is controversial as palm oil plantations have caused the destruction of rain forests in Indonesia and Malaysia, where around 85% of the world's palm oil is produced. This has resulted in habitat loss for a number of endangered species, including the orangutan. You can find out more about this here. Because of its direct impact on the welfare of animals, a lot of vegans avoid palm oil even though it isn't an actual animal product itself.
Palm oil is used in a lot of products - it is usually just listed as a vegetable oil so it is hard to know what you are buying. And this Easter, it was showing up in the ingredients list for a number of brands of hot cross buns - including Woolworths' and Coles' home brand varieties. This received a lot of negative press though so hopefully most people bought their hot cross buns from local bakeries instead.
Baked goods aren't the only thing that can contain palm oil - in the past Nestle has copped a lot of flack for using it in its chocolate.
One way to guarantee that you won't be getting any of these nasties is to make your own. Yes - even chocolate!
I was lucky enough to attend a special Easter yoga event this weekend at the gorgeous yoga studio, House of Yoga in Redfern. After sweating it out through a yummy 90 minute vinyasa class, we all got to indulge in some AMAZING homemade raw chocolate goodies.
I am not exaggerating when I say these were some of the yummiest treats I have ever tasted. I mean it - they were SO. GOOD.
Instead of being made with cocoa (which is what most chocolate is made from) they were all made using cacao. While they might sound like they are the same thing, the differences between the two are very important. Cacao is basically the seed that is used to make cocoa, but that hasn't gone through the cleaning, roasting and processing that cocoa goes through. So cacao is essentially raw. Why does this matter? Well, when it is processed, cocoa loses most of its nutritional value. Even if you eat dark chocolate, if it has been made with cocoa, it won't contain anywhere near the same levels of antioxidants and other nutrients that you get in cacao. In addition to high antioxidant levels, cacao also contains iron, copper, zinc, magnesium and calcium as well as a whole host of vitamins.
The basic ingredients of cacao chocolate are cacao powder, cacao butter (not actual butter obviously - it is just the fat that comes from the cacao bean) and some kind of sweetener, like honey or agave syrup. The tasty treats that we were served up also had all sorts of amazing ingredients added in - coconut, almonds, dried figs, fresh ginger. All tasty and all super good for you! Win!!
But what if you can't / don't want to make it yourself (or be lucky enough to have yoga teachers that make them for you)? Well, you can buy chocolate made with cacao too so you have no excuses! My favourite is Loving Earth but there are lots of other brands out there and more and more are showing up in the shops as people learn about cacao's amazing properties.
Another easy way to get a dose of cacao is in powder form - I add it to my green smoothies to turn them into perhaps the healthiest chocolate thick shake EVER. You can also use to make up a hot chocolate - definitely something to keep in mind when it gets colder.
So, even though Easter is practically over for another year, you can totally justify getting your chocolate on all year round so long as you make sure it has been made with cacao (oh and, you know, blah blah moderation blah) aaaaaaand you can feel good about doing it! Yay cacao!!!!
Whatever your religious beliefs, most of us tend to indulge in a bit of chocolate over the Easter break. And I am definitely not an exception! Right now, I am basically experiencing what can only be described as a chocolate coma.
As a vegan, my Easter treats are a little more limited but there are still plenty of dairy-free goodies for me to get my chocolate on. And it just keeps getting easier to buy animal-friendly chocolate too - there are even vegan Easter eggs! Like this yummy Organic Times dark chocolate egg:
 |
| Source: www.biome.com.au |
It is important to note that not all dark chocolate is necessarily vegan - you have to read the label to make sure it doesn't contain milk solids or butter fats. The higher the percentage of cocoa, the more likely it is that it will be dairy free (but this still isn't a guarantee). It is worth searching for though and at least you know that, while you might be being a little bit naughty, at least you are getting a nice dose of antioxidants at the same time!
There is also another issue with our Easter noms that has got a lot more attention this Easter - the use of palm oil.
The use of palm oil is controversial as palm oil plantations have caused the destruction of rain forests in Indonesia and Malaysia, where around 85% of the world's palm oil is produced. This has resulted in habitat loss for a number of endangered species, including the orangutan. You can find out more about this here. Because of its direct impact on the welfare of animals, a lot of vegans avoid palm oil even though it isn't an actual animal product itself.
Palm oil is used in a lot of products - it is usually just listed as a vegetable oil so it is hard to know what you are buying. And this Easter, it was showing up in the ingredients list for a number of brands of hot cross buns - including Woolworths' and Coles' home brand varieties. This received a lot of negative press though so hopefully most people bought their hot cross buns from local bakeries instead.
Baked goods aren't the only thing that can contain palm oil - in the past Nestle has copped a lot of flack for using it in its chocolate.
One way to guarantee that you won't be getting any of these nasties is to make your own. Yes - even chocolate!
I was lucky enough to attend a special Easter yoga event this weekend at the gorgeous yoga studio, House of Yoga in Redfern. After sweating it out through a yummy 90 minute vinyasa class, we all got to indulge in some AMAZING homemade raw chocolate goodies.
I am not exaggerating when I say these were some of the yummiest treats I have ever tasted. I mean it - they were SO. GOOD.
Instead of being made with cocoa (which is what most chocolate is made from) they were all made using cacao. While they might sound like they are the same thing, the differences between the two are very important. Cacao is basically the seed that is used to make cocoa, but that hasn't gone through the cleaning, roasting and processing that cocoa goes through. So cacao is essentially raw. Why does this matter? Well, when it is processed, cocoa loses most of its nutritional value. Even if you eat dark chocolate, if it has been made with cocoa, it won't contain anywhere near the same levels of antioxidants and other nutrients that you get in cacao. In addition to high antioxidant levels, cacao also contains iron, copper, zinc, magnesium and calcium as well as a whole host of vitamins.
The basic ingredients of cacao chocolate are cacao powder, cacao butter (not actual butter obviously - it is just the fat that comes from the cacao bean) and some kind of sweetener, like honey or agave syrup. The tasty treats that we were served up also had all sorts of amazing ingredients added in - coconut, almonds, dried figs, fresh ginger. All tasty and all super good for you! Win!!
But what if you can't / don't want to make it yourself (or be lucky enough to have yoga teachers that make them for you)? Well, you can buy chocolate made with cacao too so you have no excuses! My favourite is Loving Earth but there are lots of other brands out there and more and more are showing up in the shops as people learn about cacao's amazing properties.
Another easy way to get a dose of cacao is in powder form - I add it to my green smoothies to turn them into perhaps the healthiest chocolate thick shake EVER. You can also use to make up a hot chocolate - definitely something to keep in mind when it gets colder.
So, even though Easter is practically over for another year, you can totally justify getting your chocolate on all year round so long as you make sure it has been made with cacao (oh and, you know, blah blah moderation blah) aaaaaaand you can feel good about doing it! Yay cacao!!!!
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