At Meraki Cacao, we know our customers want a healthier alternative to chocolate. So we are proud that all of our ingredients provide a health benefit to you.

We add homemade organic almond butter to our California and Ole bars. Our almonds are gently roasted at low temperatures and ground into delicious almond butter. Adding almond butter to our bars gives them a lovely richness and texture. Still, it also adds all their fantastic health benefits to our bars. These include:

1 Fibre

Almonds contain lots of fibre. Fibre promotes good digestion health and is also linked to lowering cholesterol. High fibre foods help you feel fuller for longer, control blood sugar spikes and stop you from feeling hungry.

2 Magnesium

Magnesium is so crucial for many cellular and nervous processes. It helps convert food into energy, is good for bone health and is essential for proper muscle function. Since your heart is a muscle, it is also critical for heart health.

3 Vitamin E

Vitamin E helps boost your immune system, prevents inflammation and protects the body against oxidative stress from free radicals. Oxidative stress occurs when there is an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants in your body. Your body produces free radicals during metabolic processes and antioxidants that neutralize the free radicals. However, when too many free radicals are produced, they can impair cell regeneration and repair, leading to accelerated ageing and the development of certain diseases over time.

4 Zinc

Zinc is also necessary for a good immune system. It also helps brain function, fertility and is needed to process our food into nutrients. It can also help wounds heal quicker.

5 Manganese

Our bodies only need small amounts of manganese, but it’s necessary for bone health and normal metabolic processes.

6 Calcium

Almonds are an excellent source of calcium, which is needed for healthy bones and teeth.

7 Protein

Almonds are high in protein, which is needed for muscle, tissue and bone growth and repair.

8 Good fats

Although almonds are high in fat, they are high in fats which are good for us, such as monounsaturated fat. These types of fat help prevent heart disease as they help to reduce the levels of bad cholesterol in the blood.

Some fun facts about almonds

Almonds come from the same family as cherries and peaches. They are the seeds of the fruit from the almond tree, but you can’t eat the fruit surrounding the almond, unlike cherries and peaches.

80% of the world’s almonds are grown commercially in California but also in Spain and the Middle East. We choose to get our organic almonds from Spain.

Almonds need a hot climate to grow.

Almonds are entirely reliant on bees to pollinate them to produce the nut.