I’ve been doing a lot of reading about Chocolate lately.
The history of chocolate is really quite amazing. The making of chocolate traces back to the Mayans and the Aztecs, who worshiped chocolate for its health and anti-fatigue benefits as far back as 2,600 years ago.
In fact, I think Cocoa roughly translates into “food of the gods”.
Nowadays, chocolate is often thought of as a nutritional “evil”. No matter how hard we try, most of us just can’t resist chocolate. Many of the women I work with have tried to quit cold turkey, and then end up ‘breaking down’ and eating more chocolate then a kid on Halloween night.
Even when I was training for a bodybuilding contest and consuming 3-4 chocolate flavored protein shakes (I don’t do this anymore), I still broke down several times and had some chocolate!
It seems that no matter how hard we try, a good chocolate craving can derail even the best diet plan.
Unless of course you have learned the secret to beating your chocolate cravings…
The one way that I have discovered can help people beat their chocolate addiction is by becoming a chocolate snob.
You can have chocolate while dieting, in fact, you can have a little bit of chocolate everyday, it just has to be the good stuff.
By good stuff I mean real dark chocolate, or anything over 70% cocoa mass.
Did you now that when scientists refer to the health benefits of chocolate, they aren’t talking about your grocery store check-out line variety of chocolates, they are talking about the good stuff.
Chocolate is rich in antioxidants and polyphenols, rivaling red wine and green tea in these areas. Not only that, but chocolate also contains healthy fat. I bet you didn’t know that much of the fat in chocolate is oleic acid, the same healthy fat that is in olive oil!
Problem is, these health benefits are highest in the good dark stuff. When it comes to those check-out line chocolates, the more diluted the chocolate, the less antioxidants and polyphenols it contains.
Here’s the trick with real dark chocolate, its bitter. It takes a while to get used to how bitter it is. But, because its so bitter, it only takes a little bit to really conquer your chocolate craving, so you end up eating less.
Also, as an added bonus, once you’ve developed a taste for the good stuff, you learn to love the bitterness, and your typical check-out line variety simply tastes like chocolate flavored wax. They’re just not appealing anymore.
So if you want to beat your chocolate cravings, start by eating a little bit of the good stuff. It will help you eat less chocolate, get all the health benefits, and keep you from going back to the check-out line varieties.
