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Alright, this is John Kohler with okraw.com. Today, we're going to talk about one of my
favorite foods in the world. It's called carob. So, why don't we do a close-up? Now, there's
many different types of carob. First let me tell you about the carob tree. So, the carob
tree actually grows in Mediterranean areas, you know. Pretty much where citrus would grow,
carob can grow. I remember I have fond memories of going to Cyprus, which is in the Mediterranean
and literally picking carob out of the trees. I mean, carob trees are just being grown in
downtown areas, and I, you know, pick the carob, but that being said, not all types
of carob is really tasty and you want to get the freshest carob, you know, to eat if you're
going to eat the whole pods. So, what we have today, most people know carob as the carob
that you'll find at the health food store in the bulk section, and you'll see we have
some examples right here. SO, right here, first we have roasted carob. So, this is the
carob that's not raw. It's definitely has been roasted. So, you can see the color difference
between the roasted carob and the raw carob. So, next we have actually the raw carob that's
labeled "raw" in the health food store, usually in the bulk bins, and this is a pretty fine
powder and so it is labeled "raw" although it has been heated, you know, up to around
maybe 200 degrees. So, from a strict raw foodist point of view, raw carob from the health food
store would bot be considered raw anymore. Despite being heated up to 200 degrees, I
still believe it has a lot of beneficial nutrients and properties, you know, and I still actually
eat it sometimes. So, moving on past that, you can see the color difference, too, and
this stuff's usually a little bit more coarse than the raw carob that's really heated. The
really raw carob, on the other hand, you usually need to get from a special place that sells
raw food items, and the really raw carob is really raw. It's been heated to maybe about
100 degrees if that and then they basically pulverize into the powder. The next best way
to eat it actually is maybe crushed carob. So, this is basically the whole pods that've
just been crushed into pieces, the seeds have been taken out already, and, you know, these
ones are pretty hard and dry, but they're nice and chewy and very good flavor. The next
actually you see on the table we actually have raw cacao. So, raw cacao is not the same
as the carob. We have it on here just to show you the difference. So, these are the raw
carob pods, how whole carob pods look, and, so, with this they basically take out the
seeds and then they basically crush it down and make it into little pieces or then they
take these same pieces, they would grind it down further and make the really or if they're
doing the raw carob that's really heated, you know, they would maybe process the seeds
first, you know, usually maybe boiling them or doing something else to bring the temperature
up and then processing that so they can get a finer powder, and also it tastes different.
So, fi you taste the really raw carob versus the just raw carob, definitely taste different,
and, I mean, I like the raw carob that's a little bit better than the really raw carob,
but best of all, I like the whole pods. So, these whole pods are really special. These
pods I have here are the whole pods are from California and, you know, I would not consider
carob pods and dried fruit. I mean, this fruit is hanging on the tree and, yes, it does get
fried out a little bit form the sun, but after these are picked, basically, there's no other
processing. These are not put in like, you know, a dehydrator to dry like a fruit would.
So, just like dates, most people don't consider dates a dried fruit, because, you know, dates
are basically harvested and then sold to you. They're not actually put in the dehydrator
to get dried out further, although they do dry, you know, a little bit on the trees.
I don't consider them a dried fruit and I do not consider these a dried fruit. Now,
this kind of crushed carob or any of these powders are defiantly dehydrated because if
you take this fresh carob pod, and these pods are only available, you know, certain times
of the year, and they're available now. For example, let me show you how to eat this.
Basically what you're going to do is you're going to get an end and you're going to just
bite off the end tip. I usually don't eat that part. You could, and then spit it out
and then what you'll see is inside this carob pod will actually be like white, and if you
look at one of these dried ones, you know, it's not quite white. You wan to bite off
a little bit at a time and what you'll see is you'll see the seed in there. You only
bite off a little bit at a time because if you bite into one of those seeds, it'll break
your teeth. You can take the seed out. Now, the seed is really interesting. The seed is
actually in the olden days, the Egyptians, they would give it to jewelers and call it
a carrot. That's why they have carrots, because the carob seeds are all consistent weight
usually, from what I read. So, this is how you would eat the fresh carob. Bite it off
little by little and you'd actually see its good color and actually moist. It's not crunchy,
it's not hard, it's actually moist. So, this is actually called Saint John's Bread, and
that's because Saint John the Baptist, you know, basically lived off carob, and, you
know, comparing, for example, carob to cacao, you know, carob has vitamin a and b. What
you could eat basically has 1/3 the calories. So, it has much less calories than cacao.
Cacao is very high in fat. It can be up to 78% or 80% fat, whereas, you know, the carob
is very low. I mean, maybe 1% fat if that. So, 80% fat, 1% fat, you know. What's better?
We don't want to be eating that much fat in our diet. You could basically be thinking
of these cacao as like nuts, 'cause, I mean, they're not the whole food. I'm eating the
whole thing except for the seeds when I'm eating the carob, but on the cacao, this is
literally just the seed, or the nut, of the cacao pod. Carob also contains protein, 3-4%
protein, and there's no stimulants, no theobromine, in carob and with the cacao, they have things
like theobromine and other things that maybe aren't so healthy for us. You know, theobromine,
if you looked it up in the dictionary, it's listed as a poisonous powder. So, the other
thing is that if you feed cacao to a dog, you know, and you feed, you know, not even
that much, it could lose it's life, 'cause it's toxic to a dog. Now, dogs, on the other
hand, they can eat carob. Other animals can eat carob. One of the stories I have is that
when I was in Cyprus, I went to a, basically a camel place where they had camels and they
had little bags, selling carob pods for the camels, and it said, 'animal food,' and they'd
sell it to you so you could feed carob and the camels, they love carob, oh my god, but
I was like, 'man, we should be eating the carob, not the camels.' So, you know, animals
don't really eat the cacao beans, the seeds. If you go to like the tropics, where cacao
grows, I don't even see the monkeys eating the seeds. They may eat the fruit and the
pit of the cacao, but they won't eat the seeds. They'll actually spit them out 'cause they
taste bitter and they taste bad. So, these taste bitter and these taste bad, but these
actually taste sweet. They have a higher naturally occurring sugar content, they actually taste
sweet, whereas these are naturally bitter and the other thing is that carob is alkalinizing.
So, these will alkalinize your system, you know, make you more alkaline, and guess what
cacao will do? It'll make you more acid. So, you know, this is, carob's free of stimulants,
and actually, you know, carob is the next up and coming super food in my opinion. It
contains calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron and also, you know what? It's full of antioxidants
and polyphenols. It's also really rich in fiber. So, cacao has virtually no fiber. It's
all fat and this is really rich in fiber and we all know most Americans are not eating
enough fiber. We want to get enough fiber. So, I want to recommend everybody to eat fresh
carob and not cacao and if you are buying processed carob, of course, you know, the
best one's, the one you want to eat is to be eating foods in the freshest state as possible.
So, if you can get fresh carob pods, I'd recommend it. This stuff is like eating candy. Definitely
good if you have after-dinner, you know, sweet, you need a sweet stuff. This stuff is sweet,
but it's not overly and overtly sweet. It's just nice and sweet, it has a nice fiber,
nice chewy taste, especially if you get the fresh stuff that's nice and chewy. That's
why they called it Saint John's Bread. I mean, this reminds me of eating something nice and
chewy, kind of like, maybe like a bread that'd kind of be stretched to the limit there, but
once it gets older and dryer, it's really not as good, but when it's nice and chewy,
it's actually quite good. You can just eat this instead of candy. Next best would be,
of course, the really raw carob powder and then the raw carob powder. It is heat processed
to 200 degrees, and then of course I wouldn't recommend eating the roasted carob powder.
So, this is John Kohler with okraw.com and I hope you've learned something about carob
and carob pods today. Oh, I do want to mention, these raw carob pods, these fresh raw carob
pods, are available only for a limited time from rawcarob.com. So, once again, if you
want these raw carob pods and to try them, I mean, most people you could rarely get these.
They're in season right now. Rawcarob.com. You can order those by the pound, and they're
so delicious. You've go tot try at least one pound. So, this is John Kohler with okraw.com,
and we'll see you next time.