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Warm Up With Prebiotic Marshmallow Hot Chocolate
New Hot Chocolate Traditions
Cozy up with Healthy Hot chocolate
I love the holidays and all the festive foods. It makes me so happy to make holiday foods; but as the years have gone by, I learned that I needed to incorporate healthy holiday treats that not only satisfy my cravings around the holidays but nourish my body.
We went to a Christmas boat parade in San Diego to celebrate Christmas and have some fun. My daughter brought her prebiotic cocoa recipe she made for us. We added warmed milk and marshmallows and put them in insulated drink containers. We then climbed out on the front of the boat and watched all the decorated boats go by. I can't tell you how delicious this was and how good it is for our guts. You can even make all of these recipes sugar-free if you so desire. I'm hoping to encourage you to make this mix and make some of the healthiest and most delicious hot chocolate you'll ever have. It's only a few ingredients and you can store it in your cupboard. Your gut will thank you! Let me explain how easy this is to make and all the healthy ingredients.
Gut power ingredients
You make a powder mix that consists of 2 tablespoons of Prebio Plus powder. Adding a prebiotic (which is food for your bacteria) will make the good bacteria grow like crazy and supercharge your probiotics. Prebiotics are just as important as probiotics, and you should use them together. Prebiotics naturally reside in all kinds of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and other foods. However, we found some of the strongest sources of prebiotics and placed them in an easy-to-use powder form. This prebiotic powder has a tiny bit of sweetness due to the fruits it ferments on and also is loaded with prebiotics that feed your gut microbes and make them grow like crazy.
Next, you'll add 1/2 cup of cocoa powder and then your sweetener like coconut sugar, or monk fruit, or Allulose which is another fermented zero-calorie sweetener. Then you mix these ingredients together and store them in your cabinet. When you are ready, add a couple of spoonfuls of the cocoa mix to your mug. Then warm or steam your milk - you can use whatever type of milk you desire. It's super yummy with nondairy milk too and I loved it with coconut, cashew, and oat milk. Then stir it together until combined. If you desire, top it with my marshmallows or creme.
This protein keeps you in balance
I added vanilla collagen to my cocoa mix, but this is optional. It is so good for your gut, heart, ligaments, joints, and even blood sugars that I highly recommend it. You'll also be getting the benefits of gelatin (which is collagen too) in my marshmallows or marshmallow topping even if you don't add it to the mix. Collagen is found almost everywhere in the body, but it is most abundant in the skin, bones, tendons, and ligaments. It also helps to hold our tissues together and gives strength to our skeleton. But it also helps with digestion and leaky gut.
Chris Kressler is a renowned expert, leading clinician, and top educator in the field of Functional Medicine. He has important research about how gelatin and collagen help with cardiovascular health. He states:
"Eggs and muscle meats—as opposed to organ meats and meaty bones—are high in methionine, an amino acid. In some people, eating too much methionine can lead to a buildup of a toxic compound called homocysteine in the blood. High levels of homocysteine are an independent risk factor for a variety of serious concerns from dementia and Alzheimer’s to heart disease. This might explain why researchers sometimes find a correlation between high meat intake and chronic disease.
What helps keep methionine and homocysteine levels in a healthy balance? Glycine, which is abundant in gelatin. In fact, it accounts for roughly 27 percent of gelatin’s composition, making gelatin the richest food source of this amino acid. Although your body can make glycine, you usually don’t produce enough to cover your needs, meaning you need to obtain ample amounts from your diet." [1,2,3]
Your body has a wonderful system to keep homocysteine levels within a healthy range. It recycles homocysteine and turns it into the amino acid cysteine. When this system fails, homocysteine levels can increase. Certain nutrients are needed to keep this system running smoothly: glycine (which is found in gelatin) and B vitamins like folate and B12 are probably the most important nutrients for maintaining homocysteine levels within normal limits. Check out my marshmallow recipes!
Let's Make Hot Chocolate
I have a strong desire to be healthy and live a long and joyful life filled with good-for-you food and drinks. This hot cozy drink is becoming a new tradition in my home. It's kind of crazy that hot chocolate can do so much for you and taste so comforting and delicious. I also have another hot chocolate drink called Miso Hot Chocolate. It uses the same mix but adds some miso which gives it just a bit of a delicious salty taste. Miso is such an incredible health food that I try to use it often. Check out this article: Reasons and Recipes to Have More Miso
Miso contains nutrients that may help boost your immune system. Miso may help strengthen your gut flora and help reduce the growth of harmful bacteria as well as build up good bacteria.[4] Having a probiotic-rich diet may help reduce your risk of being sick and help you recover faster from infections, such as the common cold, and reduce the need for antibiotics by 33%. [5]
Both of these cozy hot chocolate drinks will offer a myriad of health benefits and so will the marshmallow toppings! Check out my recipes and happy holidays my friends!!
Hot chocolate is like a hug from the inside
Hot chocolate and Marshmallow recipes!
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I love warm chocolate cozy drinks, but as the years have gone by I learned that I needed to incorporate healthy treats that not only satisfy my cravings around the holidays but nourish my body. This drink has many health benefits and is so easy to make and have on hand. Check it out you won't regret it.
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