Cocoa butter is a popular ingredient in skincare as well as some food products. In this article, you can learn about what cocoa butter is made of, whether it’s vegan, and more.
Yes, Cocoa Butter Is Vegan
Cocoa butter is a type of fat that is extracted from cocoa beans. Despite the misleading ‘butter’ in its name, the substance is fully vegan, and makes up the fatty portion of the same plant that chocolate is made of. In fact, when you separate out the cocoa butter from the whole cocoa bean, the remainder is a familiar ingredient: cocoa powder.
Cocoa powder has many nutritional properties, and can also be used for skincare. However, always remember to have a look at the rest of the ingredients – they may not automatically all be vegan. With cocoa butter skincare products, animal testing may also be an issue, so keep an eye out for labels like leaping bunny.
Where Does Cocoa Butter Come From?
As mentioned above, cocoa butter is made from the cocoa bean, a plant that is native to tropical regions around the equator. Seventy percent of the world’s cocoa is now grown in western Africa, in the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, and Cameroon.
So if you’re eating cocoa products in the US, the beans, cocoa butter, or finished product were probably transported a long way before they ended up in your supermarket. This long transport route produces a correspondingly large amount of greenhouse gases. So even if cocoa butter is vegan, it is not automatically sustainable.
In addition to these concerns, cocoa production is also associated with significant labor violations. Unfortunately, many cocoa producers use child labor and slavery, making many products extremely unethical. In order to minimize your negative impact when using cocoa butter, you can look for a product that has been certified by third-party organizations. For example, you can look for products with a Fairtrade label.
How Cocoa Butter Affects Your Skin
As a vegan product, cocoa butter is suitable for a plant-based skincare routine. Keep in mind, it has a high concentration of fat, and will feel heavier than most moisturizers when you apply it to your skin. Perhaps because of this consistency, cocoa butter is often said to have special properties, such as the ability to make scars or stretch marks less noticeable, or to heal eczema.
Unfortunately, little research has been done to verify these claims, but one study suggests that compounds called polyphenols, which are found inside cocoa butter, could be beneficial for enhancing skin elasticity. While cocoa butter may not be the most miracle-working skin product out there, it can certainly have some benefits. And as a bonus, it smells wonderful, which can be a benefit on its own.
Cocoa Butter in Your Diet
In addition to its moisturizing effects, cocoa butter also has a few beneficial nutritional properties as well.
- Cocoa butter contains 3.9 milligrams of vitamin E and 53.9 micrograms of vitamin K per cup, which is about 20 percent and 67 percent of your daily needs, respectively. Vitamin E is important for reducing oxidative damage, which can contribute to aging processes, whereas vitamin K is necessary for building proteins used for clotting blood.
- Additionally, cocoa butter contains 218 milligrams of omega-3 fatty acids per cup, giving you a nutrient that is necessary for healthy hormonal regulation, among other benefits.
That being said, cocoa butter has high fat content, including saturated fats, which can contribute to increased cholesterol and risk of heart disease. Therefore, whether you follow a vegan diet or not, it’s best not to consume too much cocoa butter.
Cocoa butter’s high fat content does, however, make it a great vegan substitute for fatty animal products. It doesn’t have a strong chocolate flavor, and is particularly good for use in baking. You can add it as a substitute to dairy butter or to vegetable oil ingredients for your vegan cookies, brownies, and more in order to add a few extra vitamins to your sweet treats.
Read more:
- 9 Incredible Chocolate Brands for Vegans
- Vegan Chocolate Mousse: Two Easy Recipes
- Why Drink Fair Trade Coffee? Facts, Myths and Brands
Do you like this post?