The `Chocolate Pope’s’ Love Affair With Cacao

c. 2006 Beliefnet (UNDATED) David Wolfe recalls eating his first fresh cacao bean _ the natural form of chocolate _ while visiting friends in Hawaii many years ago. “My friend said, `Have you eaten one of these?’ And as soon as I crunched into it, the cacao god downloaded me the truth about cacao beans […]

c. 2006 Beliefnet

(UNDATED) David Wolfe recalls eating his first fresh cacao bean _ the natural form of chocolate _ while visiting friends in Hawaii many years ago.

“My friend said, `Have you eaten one of these?’ And as soon as I crunched into it, the cacao god downloaded me the truth about cacao beans in a millisecond,” he said.


Wolfe, 35, a raw food expert who resides in Southern California, Manhattan, and Toronto, has degrees in mechanical and environmental engineering and political science. While trying to decide what to do with his life, he earned a law degree from the University of San Diego and became a minister in the Essene Church of Christ, a denomination that aims to restore Jesus’ teachings on vegetarianism, reincarnation and the feminine aspect of God that it believes were removed from the original New Testament.

But since his awakening in Hawaii, Wolfe has left his post at the pulpit and instead devoted his life to preaching the good word _ about chocolate.

Wolfe loves cacao so much that he has created a “chocolate religion.”

“I nominated myself the Chocolate Pope,” he said. “The only two requirements for joining the chocolate religion are you have to love cacao and you have to help us get a `Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ book into every hotel room in the world, because that is the Chocolate Bible.”

His latest book, “Naked Chocolate,” celebrates the cacao bean as part of a raw-food lifestyle. Wolfe and his co-author, the British raw food enthusiast known as Shazzie, list dozens of recipes for raw cacao.

They also explain the mythology that surrounds cacao, its chemical composition and nutritional capabilities, and its other “interesting” properties (it’s a psychedelic).

Raw foodists believe that eating uncooked, organic, plant-based food connects human beings to God. “I personally feel that one of the major reasons people are disconnected spiritually, emotionally, psychically, from the Earth is because they are eating foods that have nothing to do with God,” said Wolfe, who also runs the http://www.rawfood.com Web site.

In other words, cooking food disconnects people from God.

Wolfe is serious about his love of cacao. Followers of his “nondenominational” religion will discover:


_ People who love chocolate, but have allergies or develop acne reactions to it, will not have those problems with cacao.

_ Cacao is the most chemically complex food in the world and has many nutritional benefits. Wolfe believes that cacao is the largest natural source of magnesium on Earth, containing 18 times more magnesium than blood. Yet, magnesium deficiency is the No. 1 major mineral deficiency in the Western world and can cause heart attacks, he said.

_ Cacao is higher in vitamin C than any other nut or seed, but 100 percent of cacao’s vitamin C is destroyed in the processing of chocolate.

_ Although chocolate is looked upon as a guilty pleasure, Wolfe said the scientific truth of cacao is quite the opposite. “Cacao is the No. 1 weight-loss food in the world,” he said. “When Atkins comes out with a new bar that says `new chocolate flavor,’ they would make a chocolate flavor even if you hated it because it’s an appetite suppressant.”

For those who wish to integrate cacao into their daily diets, Wolfe suggested adding it to “any smoothie or beverage, blend it into tea, sprinkle on dessert as chocolate chips, eat it with almonds, add it into trail mix, or eat it straight.” About 10 beans a day is enough per person, he said.

Wolfe says that processed chocolate is the result of de-fatting and alkalizing the cacao bean. All the oil is squeezed out of the bean, and salts are added to increase the resulting powder’s capability to be mixed. But the real problem, Wolfe said, is when milk is added because powdered milk blocks the antioxidant properties of cacao.


Wolfe maintains that cacao has a spiritual, as well as a nutritional, history. Some Central and South American myths feature cacao as a deity. One myth talks about the role cacao played in bringing balance back to the Earth after a greedy deity stole all the wealth.

The ancient Aztecs founded a financial system based on using cacao as currency. That made sure that “if there are really greedy people, like Wall Street greed, the incentive (to get richer) is to plant more trees; chocolate trees!” Wolfe said. “It’s unbelievable. That’s the energy of the cacao god that can take one type of energy _ greed _ and transform it into planetary friendly behavior.”

Cacao also has effects on human emotion and mental state, Wolfe said, referring to a chemical called anandamide that is found in cacao. He said anandamide, also referred to as the “bliss chemical,” is the same one produced by the brain when a person works out or falls in love.

Wolfe said cacao also contains other chemicals that are related to enhancing one’s mood. “It’s happy food,” he said. “It’s nature’s Prozac.”

Cacao also has psychedelic effects with what Wolfe calls shamanistic potential. That’s because cacao is the greatest delivery vehicle of psychedelics, superior to peyote or other psychedelic spiritual substances, he said.

What’s more, Wolfe said eating a raw diet helps people confront their fear of death because it forces them to face the natural living cycle of unpreserved, uncooked food on a daily basis. “When you get back into the rhythm of life,” he said, “that fear just disappears. It puts you in touch with the great, grand rhythm and stream of life flow.”


KRE/JL END KORNFELDEditors: To obtain a photo of Wolfe, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug. If searching by subject, designate “exact phrase” for best results.

A similar story originally appeared on Beliefnet (http://www.beliefnet.com). This article may be used by RNS clients but please use the Beliefnet byline.

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