[Charlie_girl]

Oh damn, just read your discussions about raw maca. I bought t because it was the cheapest of the different available ones they had in the store. Unfortunately, I already opened it so I cannot return it. I'll try it and see how it affects me.

Do you think it would be possible to cook the maca powder by just toasting it in a pan before using it? Another idea could be to throw a tsp into food I am cooking, and so it gets cooked with the food (although I guess that would affect the taste of the food since 1 tsp of any spice/herb is usually a lot of flavour!)

I was ok on raw but start low. The gelatinized actually really bothered me. You could put it in a smoothie
I might try maca again over xmas break when i have time to get used to the extra energy

Ella- didn't you have heart palpitations? That side effect is WAY more prominent with raw maca than with cooked (gelatinized). Or, so says Google. Lol. I had to look that up, I'm not going to lie But hey, some people prefer raw over gelatinized. And a lot of people say that if you aren't getting the desired results from one, to switch to the other.

But Ella is right, start slow. I went from 1/2 the recommended dose and build my way up. But since after, what, 2 weeks I think? I didn't have any adverse reactions, and that's why now I feel comfortable bumping it up like I am. And YES! Actually, you can cook/roast the maca yourself. You can also definitely add it to foods to cook. There's all kinds of Maca recipes. Maca is like a spice, or used a a flour-like substance normally. Peruvians have been cooking and eating this for a very loooong time.

*To roast/cook raw maca powder: Preheat oven to 350, spread out the maca powder onto a cookie or baking sheet and spread into a pretty even later with a spatula. Throw it in the oven and about every 7 minutes, you'll want to pull it out and mix the powder well with the spatula to make sure it's getting evenly cooked. Do this until all of the maca is a darker, rich brown color. Maybe a total of 20 min or so? Here's a video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SBTtO6XPfEs

*Maca recipes (If you roast all of your maca, don't double cook it. It seems like that would kill off a lot, if not most, of the goodness it has in it)
http://www.macarecipes.com/
http://superfoodsandsupershakes.com/category/recipes-using-maca-powder/

I like this one just because they're called "Sexy Balls"
http://www.joyoushealth.ca/blog/2012/02/08/sexy-balls-maca-raw-cookie-recipe/

There's a lot more, you can google "maca recipes"