As a personal trainer, I get a lot of questions about nutrition. One question I seem to be getting a lot lately is, "Is Chocolate Healthy?" The more I read about it, the more information I find about the incredible health benefits chocolate has to offer. Even better, it's been shown to help you lose weight!
Is chocolate healthy? Can we eat chocolate while dieting?
While it may seem somewhat funny, it’s an important question to ask because I know we all crave things like sugar, chocolate and sodium filled foods. The worst part about it is, they seem even more appealing when they’re off limits! Chocolate gets a bad reputation because most of the chocolate bars and chocolate candies lining the shelves at our grocery stores are stuffed full of processed sugars, waxes, dyes and other fillers to make it sweet, cheap to make and more addictive. Pure chocolate is referred to as cacao and can be purchased in your local health food store. Cacao has a ton of benefits and has actually been proven to help you shed pounds when on a diet. But you can’t just go out and buy a dark chocolate bar from the store, you need to buy a good bar of chocolate or make your own. Choose chocolates sweetened with natural sweeteners like Agave Nectar, Stevia or Honey.
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WebMD has a great article regarding the various health benefits of chocolate, citing numerous studies. So, to answer the question—YES! You can eat chocolate while dieting, but make sure to limit yourself to three small servings a day (three small squares) and make sure you choose an all natural chocolate (not milk chocolate) that contains a high percentage of cacao.
There are numerous companies out there who offer chocolate without all the additives. One company sells, Xocai, which is a mixture of cacao and Acai berry. Check them out!