Chocolate Troubles

I really need to catch up on my blog but I'm SO excited about this!!! I love chocolate but chocolate doesn't love me. I realized a couple of years ago that if I eat too much chocolate or if I have chocolate several days in a row I get canker sores. The past 6 months or so I've been experimenting with my diet....taking certain foods out then adding them back in to see how it affects me (I'll post more about this another time). Chocolate/cocoa has been one of my experiment foods. I get really dry hands with eczema. The skin on my hands will sometimes crack and bleed and my entire hand hurts. It sucks. I've realized that eating chocolate makes it worse. 

The other day I decided to try a dessert recipe that has coconut oil, cocoa and honey. (You can find this recipe and other healthy recipes on my friend's blog called TheHappyBellyBaker.com) within minutes my hands were hurting and irritated. An old roommate of mine told me about this stuff called Carob Powder (found at Whole Foods) that she uses instead of cocoa since her son is allergic to chocolate. I made the same recipe again with Carob Powder and no reaction!! SO EXCITED I can eat "chocolate" now and not have to have all of my bad side effects along with it!