When it comes to dark chocolate, sometimes we just can’t get more than enough!
Chocolate, and peoples love of chocolate, go back thousands and thousands of years. The Aztecs some 4-5000 years ago were grinding up cocoa beans and combining them with other ingredients to make drinks and porridges.
Even the name of ‘cocoa’ comes from the ancient Nahuatl language meaning “bitter water”. Clearly the use of chocolate has evolved into the modern era but a standard drink of hot chocolate shares similar traits with those early beverages.
And just like with everything in our life there are good and bad versions of the same thing..
It’s perfectly fine to add a daily part of chocolate for your diet, and perhaps recommended for health benefits, however there are some things you have to look at just before splurging.
Tip #1: Be Careful With Calories
Dark chocolate is very full of fat and full of calories. It’s not recommended to eat a pound of chocolate a day, even though it can feel hard to not overload.
Along with a well-balanced diet, you ought to be looking to add no more than 100 grams (or 3.5 ounces) of dark chocolate per day to maximize the advantages.
One bar of chocolate will normally have around 400 calories.
So, if you choose to eat 1 / 2 of that bar, that equates to around 200 calories. Therefore, you need to do something to balance out those 200 extra calories, whether it’s giving up something you’d eat, or increasing your physical activity levels to burn off those extra calories.
Tip #2: Don’t Inhale It!
With regards to dessert (especially chocolate), I’ve been known to inhale my way through sight.
Don’t do this! Instead, concentrate on tasting the chocolate.
Since chocolate is really an intricate food with over 300 compounds and chemicals hiding in each bite, you need to really slow down and concentrate on enjoying and appreciating the unique flavour.
Professional chocolate tasters (wow, I want that job!) have actually developed a system for tasting chocolate, which include a variety of quality assessments which range from appearance, smell, feel, and taste of each and every delicious piece.
Tip #3: Skip The Milk
I understand that milk chocolate is more creamy and sugary than perhaps 70% cocao chocolate, but trust me, once you dark, you won’t want to go back!
Chocolates has so many more antioxidants compared to milk or white chocolate, both of which do not provide any real health benefits. Select a nice chocolates that has 65% of higher cocoa content. My personal favourite is 70 – 75% cocoa. Yum!
Tip #4: Avoid Fillers
Whether it’s a nougat, caramel, or nutty centre that’s hiding inside your bar of chocolate, you won’t exactly be getting the entire many benefits from it when it’s been full of plenty of sugary, chemically, trans fat stuff!
Instead, search for pure chocolates with nuts, orange peel, or other flavours. By doing this, you are able to still obtain the pleasure in tasting different flavours if you’re not the largest fan of plain, dark chocolate.
However, be sure to avoid anything with caramel, nougat, or other sugary fillers.
Tip #5: Avoid Drinking Milk Together with your Chocolate
Sounds strange, doesn’t it? This is a hard one for me.
Although washing your tasty chocolate treats down with a nice, cold glass of milk afterward seems like a good idea, some scientific study has learned that this may actually prevent certain antioxidants from being absorbed because of your body.
Should you really should quench your thirst, try substituting it for any glass of water instead.
IMPORTANT: we are talking about dark chocolate with at least 70% cocoa solids. Most of the chocolate on the market is garbage. Milk chocolate I’m afraid falls under that category. But if you are to start eating a few squares of dark chocolate here and there you will find you will almost be repelled by the overly sugary, unnatural choices that are a masquerading as chocolate out there.
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