I tried making my own "hot chocolate" by mixing cacao powder with hot water, not knowing how bitter it would taste (the lovely chocolatey smell is decieving!). Though it didn't taste great, I felt felt awesome afterwards - really calm and invigorated - and I slept like a baby.

I would think that your reaction to cacao will mostly depend on your 1) unique genetic makeup and 2) dietary context/ gut flora.

I get great results from Cacao. I take a ripe banana, an egg, a tablespoon of almond butter, a tablespoon of ground flax, a tablespoon of Cacao powder, and a teaspoon of honey. Mash the banana, mix everything together quite well, microwave for 3 minutes, and I get great results from the taste of the desert I just made. Not sure of the health benefits, but I can assure you it is not unhealthy. There is no miracle food that if you eat just that one food, you will be better. Your body doesn't have a cacao deficiency.

People I know who eat a lot of raw cacao look like shit, and they behave like drug addicts, of course this is just observation, but enough for me.

I tried it once, and had a panic attack, but then again, I have histamine intolerance, so it doesn't say much (it was my first panic attack ever, and thus far last).

I think that there is a reason people have been processing stuff like cacao, and eating it after processing, and not raw. I get zero symptoms from processed cacao (in small amounts anyway), and I know people who eat chocolate everyday, and they are normal, and healthy looking, unlike those that trip on raw cacao.

The raw food movement has a lot of things ass backwards.

The benefit i notice when I take cacao extract, is I am WIDE AWAKE LIKE A NINJA!!!

My experiences with raw cacao is very short and unpleasant one. I bought myself a bag of cacao nibs with the intetion of possibly including them in my regular diet, but already after two very modest intakes (about 20g each time) I noticed mild pain in my kidney while resting, and (sometimes usual when exercising, lack-of-energy type) pain in the right part of the abdomen while running (didn't expect it).

I didn't notice any particular benefits, so I stopped using cacao stuff. Negative symptoms I've mentioned didn't happen to me before, and likewise, after I've stopped using cacao.

Edit: Forgot to write... I also experienced strong craving for the cacao nibs when I was testing them.

The benefits are overstated by people like david wolfe but at the same time cacao does contain a decent amount of nutrients so it could definitely give someone good results if they are somewhat deficient. I personally never noticed anything special from any form of cacao(raw, roasted, pure etc.) but I do love munching on a bag of chocolate chips :)

Regarding any form of cacao: My mood noticeably improves when I include cocoa powder or dark chocolate.

Also, this is less scientific, but my exercise recovery sucked more during the times when I wasn't including these in my diet, so I associate cocoa with better exercise recovery, even though this definitely would need some variable isolation before I could be certain of any link.

As for raw cacao, it isn't available where I live unfortunately; I cannot comment.