Is Xocai everything it's made out to be?
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News & New Product Press (Read-Only)
There are a number of misconceptions here.There is no firm scientific evidence about the temperature 118F - considered by many in the raw foods world to be the max temp to which foods may be subjected during processing. This single temperature suggests that the biochemistry of all foods is the same. It's not that simple - a single temperature is waaaaaay too simplistic.The single temperature also ignores the very importants variable of contact time and food structure. A nut with an outer shell could be subjected to a very high heat for a very short period of time to kill pathogens on the exterior of the shell without transferring
any of that heat to the nut inside. Even foods with very thin shells (e.g., cocoa beans) can be treated this way without raising the temperature of over 99% of the mass of the bean above 118F. Plus, food with a high water content stays relatively cooler (through evaporative cooling) than foods with a low water content.Also - beware of ORAC. It too is a simplistic measure that taken alone is relatively meaningless. Metabolism is way too complex and individual to make a single ORAC measure generally applicable. Also, there's so much variability in ingredients that it's really necessary to measure every single batch produced to get an accurate score.However, consumers like simple numbers because they are easy to understand and apply. 118F max temp is easy to understand and adhere to. If the temp were different for every single food it would not be so easy.8000 ORAC score per serving
has to be "better" than 2000, right?Maybe not. One thing to look at is cost. What' the cost of a serving with 8000 ORAC and is there another way to get the benefit at lower cost. Also, it doesn't matter what's in the food, it matter what metabolites make it into your bloodstream. So - not only might there be a lower-cost means of getting your daily ORAC, there might be a more effective way, too.
