Did you enjoy Easter? It’s a great family occasion, whatever your beliefs. It’s a time when friends and families get together, enjoy food together and of course, that includes the good-old Easter egg!
How many Easter eggs did you get? As a kid, I used to get 7 or 8 eggs but they were usually gone within a week! No wonder I was running around for hours – totally hyper!
This Easter, I only received one egg but that was a good thing. It meant I could indulge for a short time. The egg I got was made from organic chocolate so at least it sounded healthier! [Thanks Maggie for the egg, it was much appreciated – Maggie is a current client of mine].
Now before telling me off for eating chocolate, I wanted to let you into a little secret…
Chocolate is GOOD for you…well, dark chocolate that is.
Dark chocolate is loaded with antioxidants (nearly eight times the number found in strawberries) and it contains stimulants that can have a positive effect on fat burning, including theobromine and caffeine. It also contains oleic acid, which is a monounsaturated fat.
Fantastic, eh? I bet that has cheered you up?!
Just make sure to choose 70% or higher cocoa levels for best results (the higher the % the better).
The chocolate that isn’t so good for you is the sugary, milk chocolate – the one that you find covering Walnut Whips. That chocolate messes with your blood sugar levels – giving you highs and lows, making you hungry pretty quickly afterwards. You then start to crave more milk chocolate.
With dark, cocoa-rich chocolate, you get all of the health benefits listed above plus you’ll find that you don’t actually want that much of it as it has a less ‘craving’ effect.
So, including dark chocolate in your diet can be beneficial to your health.