My Chocolate Fantasy

The world of dieting and diets is full of some really strange and wacky ideas! It seems that almost every month some celebrity or another is coming out endorsing yet another spin on the diet theme! Well, I’m no celebrity, but here is one you might not expect – The Chocolate Diet!

I can almost see you falling off your chair in fits of giggles – here comes another of those wacky fad diets from yet another self-proclaimed expert! I’m always very aware of that old definition of an “expert” – “X” is an unknown quantity, and a “spurt” is a drip under pressure!

The Chocolate Diet? Haven’t we’ve been told since we were young that chocolate is BAD for us – a moment on the lips, a life time on the hips! Certainly, if you are talking about highly refined milk chocolate then I would agree with you. But, what if we were talking about something very different?

We might be in need of a quick history lesson. Hernan Cortes was the Conquistador who led the  “conquest” of the Aztecs. Writing in 1519 he observed:

“The divine drink builds up resistance and fights fatigue. A cup of this precious drink permits a man to walk for a whole day without food”!

And the drink he was talking about was …. Chocolate! Remember, he was a soldier not known for making rash, unsubstantiated, judgments. Clearly, something is going on here that we need to pay attention to.

But before you go rushing off to the local supermarket, and hit the sweet counters, this is not any old chocolate we are talking about! Certainly, it is not your average confectionery chocolate. What if we were talking about one of the most natural and nutritious foods known to humanity – the original Healthy Dark Chocolate?

Most of our “sweet” chocolate is so highly processed that all the natural goodness has been stripped from it. The very processes we use to make chocolate more “palatable” destroy nearly all its nutritional value. In the same way that overcooking a dish of vegetables turns it into a nutritional wasteland, so it is with chocolate.

This article is all about how healthy chocolate can genuinely help you to lose weight. It is not a joke or another diet scam. It is a serious and accurate claim that can work as well for you as it has for us.

Let’s think about dieting for a moment. Most people equate “going on a diet” with some sort of fiendish punishment for past sins! They believe that everything that makes eating fun and enjoyable has to be stopped – no more treats, just boring, boring, rabbit food!

That is precisely why I love the idea of “The Chocolate Diet”. Imagine being able to have regular portions of healthy chocolate that will actually help you to lose weight. Suddenly being on a diet doesn’t seem such a bad proposition after all!

Surprisingly, there is a great deal of solid scientific evidence to suggest that eating healthy dark chocolate can actually reduce your body fat levels! It seems that eating real chocolate regulates the genes that are involved with the metabolism of fats. It actually helps our body to digest the fats we consume.

Not only that, but healthy chocolate also seems to act as a major appetite suppressant too. A small square or nugget fills you in a way that seems unbelievable considering its size!

Much of our desire to eat comes from the poor nutritional content of so much of our food stuffs. Our body craves certain nutrients and will encourage us to eat to supply its needs. If it recognises that it is getting the nutrition it needs it ceases its craving for “junk” foods with their high sugar and dubious nutritional content.

Our family has certainly found this to be the case, and our desire for “quick fix” snacks has all but vanished since we have been taking our healthy chocolate. Regular doses of good, nutritious, food seem to naturally regulate our weight – without all the painful side effects and cravings of conventional dieting.

Does it mean that you can still eat lots of other rubbish and magically lose weight? Of course not! You have to look at your total diet. The good news is that the chocolate seems to help you! A common experience is that people no longer crave unhealthy snacks – the need for instant sugar fixes are gone, and with it goes all those extra calories that pile on during the day.

Remember, the most effective way to lose weight is to control what you eat. And an effective way to control what you eat is to let healthy dark chocolate do the work for you. You definitely won’t feel like you’re “on a diet” then!

One of the definitions of madness is doing the same thing but expecting different results! Until you do something different you will not lose weight – it really is that simple. Sometimes people just need a gentle nudge to make empowering changes. That nudge can come from eating healthy chocolate – it will simply do the work for you.

If you have a few too many wobbly bits where there use to be firm curves then here is something that should definitely get you interested. A new approach to lose weight that will help you to get the body you always wanted, without all the heartache of a conventional diet!

Chocolate diet was introduced by Italian dietitians. The duration of chocolate diet is from 5 to 7 days; after that you should make a break for 4 days, but 6-days break is preferable. You are allowed to drink only in 3 hours after eating. The menu of chocolate dietChocolate diet allows the mixing of these products, as well having snacks between the main meals. The products can be eaten in any form. For example, eat whole fruit for breakfast on Monday, make a fruit salad on Tuesday morning, and mark the start of Wednesday with applesauce. The remarkable feature of chocolate diet is that starvation becomes anti-productive. That means you need not starve yourself, it is even prohibited. Hence it appears the formal permission to have snacks between the main meals. Chocolate can help you to stay alert and energized. To say the true, you cannot exceed the specified standard which is 30 g per day. There is no strict time frame for the chocolate diet; you can reduce on it for about a week, on the average. Approximate daily list of products for chocolate diet: • Pasta (spaghetti, noodles, shells and other solid pasta); • Sauces for pasta (with a low-fat, mostly without the meat, with an exceptions of small pieces of white meat); • Salads (filled with fatless sauces, without crackers); • Vegetables; • Fresh fruit; • Popcorn (cooked without oil and salt); Toppings (supplements) for popcorn may include fatless oil and vegetable supplements, powdered garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, chili peppers, hard parmesan. • Chocolate (30 g per day); • Water (2 liters a day). Sample of menu for chocolate diet: Breakfast: Fresh fruit, fruit salad, wheat flakes with skimmed milk and strawberries. Snack between main meals: popcorn, fruit. Lunch: salad, pasta salad, spaghetti. Snack between main meals: popcorn, vegetable assortment, fruit cocktail (0.5 0f fresh banana, 0.5 cup of peaches or other fruits to choose from, 1 cup of skimmed milk). Dinner: fettuccini with garlic and tomato sauce or any other whole grained pasta, salad, vegetables, cooked by steaming or boiled. Snack between main meals: popcorn, chocolate. During the day: water, sparkling water, mineral water. Find various useful diets for weight loss at Ideal Weight Blog.

Are you one of these people that just have to look at a chocolate cake and you put on 2 kilo’s? Are you so obsessed with “fats” that you avoid them completely?

Well if you are – then it’s time to change! 

You see, many people are terrified of fats. They think that if they eat fats, then they will become fat. And this is true to a certain extent, particularly when you consume high amounts of the “naughty fats” – like animal, rancid and trans-fats. 

As Yuri Elkaim, the author of Eating For Energy explains – these fats will definitely destroy your body and your health because they do not occur naturally in nature. Your body has no idea how to process these fats so it just stores them as fat … which is a bit of a bugger really!! 

But is there such a thing as ‘healthy fats’? 

Absolutely – and they’re called Raw Plant Fats. 

And the good news is that these healthy plant fats have an absolutely amazing impact on your body and your health.

You see, it’s absolutely essential to incorporate healthy fats into your diet because quite literally, a diet without fats means that you will die! (Sorry to be so melodramatic but I just want to get my point across …)

Fats are required to transport fat-soluble vitamins, are needed to build cell membranes, and provide protection and insulation for your vital organs. 

And here’s a bit of trivia for you … more than 60% of the human brain is made up of fat. (Finally, there is a place in our body where we want more fat!) 

But what makes raw plant fats different to animal and trans-fats? 

Well to begin with, your body is able to break down these fats so that they can be easily digested. Because raw plant fats have not been processed or heated, they still contain their fat digesting enzyme lipase which helps digest these fats in the body. 

Therefore, even if your diet has a higher amount of raw plant fats, you are less likely to gain weight when compared to consuming the same amount, or less, of cooked animal fat. 

In fact, you will even lose body fat whilst eating raw plant fats if you are following an exercise program as well. (How cool is that?!) 

Furthermore, plant fats contain no cholesterol. Cholesterol is a compound found only in animals as it is produced in the liver. 

And another reason to make sure that you’re eating plenty of raw fats is that they quite literally make you beautiful! They make you skin, hair, and nails shine. Their oils also help lubricate the linings and joints of the body so are beneficial to those who suffer from inflammatory conditions such as arthritis, asthma, and bronchitis.

Some healthy fats and oils include:

Coconut oil, fish oil, avocado, olives and olive oil, flaxseeds, pumpkin seeds and walnuts.

So don’t be terrified of fats because good fats are excellent for your health. Avoid the naughty fats (and yes, that does include the chocolate cake …), and eat plenty of raw plant fats instead. 

Not only will you feel guilt free, but you will be glowing with health – inside and out!

 

I have read about many theories on weight loss, exercise and diet, and understand the theories of the Atkin’s Diet, grapefruit diets and calorie controlled diets. I have read about them all. But which of them actually work? That is the 64,000 dollar question with a very simple answer.
All or none! You can eat chocolate cake if you work it off next day! Whatever diet you use, there is one very simple equation that is ruled by science; by the biochemistry of our bodies. If energy in is greater than energy out, you have an excess of energy. If energy in is less than energy out, you have a deficit of energy. In common parlance, you can equate energy in with calories eaten and energy out with calories used up. An excess of energy is stored either as fat or as glycogen in the liver, and a deficit of energy equates with weight loss.
This equation is a law of physics, as Scottie of Star Trek would say, or a law of biochemistry. It cannot be broken, no matter what diet you are on. Some foods can increase the metabolic rate, which is the energy used by the body when at rest, such as for breathing, blood circulation, thinking and the 1001 other things that the body does, even while you are asleep. If you wake up in the night feeling very hot and sweating, that is your body burning excess calories. A high metabolic rate is why some people seem to be able to eat everything without putting on a pound.
Most fat is stored under the skin, and that is the fat is normally lost first when you exercise. However, other fat can be stored round the abdomen and major organs such as the heart and liver. That fat is the most dangerous. It is difficult to shift, and can place great strain on the major organs. That is why abdominal fat is considered to medically undesirable, and is considered to have a greater effect on your health than fat elsewhere in your body.
The only way to lose weight is not to try a fad diet, but to take in fewer calories than you use up. It is simple math. 1000 calories in, 1001 calories used, then you lose weight. Simple. Better to have 1000 calories in and 2000 used, but that is beside the point. The message is that Atkins will not work if you eat more calories than you use. The theory is that a low carbohydrate diet increases your metabolic rate. So equal calories taken by Atkins and a high carb diet, means that Atkins loses more weight due to a higher metabolism. Atkins fails when too much fat is eaten and not enough exercise is taken because the subject relies on the diet and fails to exercise. That is a recipe for disaster with any diet, Atkins or not.
It is unbelievable how many people, some claiming to be expert dieticians, refuse to accept the concept of calories. Calories are fact, not a concept, and are popularly used as a measure of energy intake. It doesn’t really matter whether you use calories or any other units, anybody that does not accept their relevance in diet are nuts.
To repeat, and to put it in a nutshell, energy absorbed must be less than energy expended if you are to lose weight. The best way to lose energy is exercise. The more exercise you do, the more weight you lose, as long as you eat less energy that you are using. Where you lose the weight depends on what parts of the body are being exercised. If you have fat thighs, you won’t lose thigh fat if you exercise your arms. You will end up with skinny arms and thunder thighs.
If you carry out a structured exercise campaign designed to trim your whole body that is combined with a good diet regime, then weight loss, exercise and diet will work for you as science dictates that it must. Science is fact, not opinion.
Exercise and diet can work together. Learn how to combine them in a productive way and you will lose weight a lot easier than you could have believed. No more diet fads. You can eat anything you want, in any amount you want, as long as you exercise to work off what you eat. A tub of ice cream is fine if you are prepared to do an hour on the treadmill next day. So don’t think that losing weight means the end of the chocolate cake – it needn’t. It is all a matter of balance.

The truth is nine out of ten people love chocolate and 50% say they can’t live without it. Recent studies shown that some chocolates can actually have positive health effects. But these aren’t the name-brand chocolate bars you would find at your local grocery store.
An internationally recognized expert in the field of alternative medicine focusing on diet and nutrition, Dr. Keith Scott-Mumby, has studied the properties and benefits of dark chocolate and feels the proper dark chocolate should be a part of our daily diet.
“Chocolate is made from the beans of the cacao tree, Theobroma Cacao,” says Scott-Mumby. He explains that plant flavanoids are commonly known for their antioxidant activity. “A small bar of chocolate can contain as many flavanoids as six apples, as four and a half cups of tea or two glasses of red wine.” Dark chocolate also can be an effective apatite suppressant and aid in weight loss.
Properly processed dark actually provides great benefits without the unhealthy ingredients that are often included in the common chocolate bar. Good dark chocolate can help you lose weight; help thin you blood, improve your mood and can actually address ant-aging and has a number of other significant health benefits.
I one case dark chocolate lover Charlotte Palmer started dieting with her husband. She decided that The Doctor’s Chocolate was going to be a treat that she could eat that would help her suppress her appetite. After four months she lost 50 pounds and is continuing to follow her diet. “Eating The Doctor’s Chocolate has helped me along because it has kept me from eating other junk food, it has helped suppress my appetite, and it has helped me to remain calm and not so stressed when you’re missing out on all the other treats,” comments Palmer.
The Doctor’s Chocolate a healthy chocolate product new to the market is a mere 20 calories per piece, it is diabetic safe and because it is not weighed down with all the sugars and milk that processed chocolate is famous for, it actually is metabolized slowly and leaves you feeling satisfied after only a couple of pieces.
Instead of sugar this chocolate is sweetened by a sugar alcohol called Xylotol, recognized by the FDA as a safe non-sugar sweetener and has no trans fat. Be careful of products containing synthetic or chemical sweeteners such as sucralose or aspartame. When choosing your chocolate treat make it dark Chocolate with only natural products, without additives, preservatives or coloring.
Enjoy your healthy dark chocolate and eat all you want; now you know dark chocolate can be good for you!