Chocolate and Dieting

‘There are four basic food groups: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, and chocolate truffles.’ Anonymous

Do you have to deny yourself your favourite indulgence when you are dieting? Happily, the answer is no – although, as with all foods, you do need to eat it in moderation. The key here, once again, is the kind of chocolate you eat: the best chocolate to choose when watching your weight is high quality chocolate that is high in cocoa solids, preferably more than 60%. Dark chocolate is also superior to milk or white chocolate.

As noted above, chocolate is a low GI food – a diet many people are following. Whether you are following GI, Atkins or any other eating plan, the occasional indulgence is always permitted, and you can’t really get any better than dark chocolate that is made by traditional methods, thus free of the sugar, hydrogenated oils and transfatty acids present in much mass-produced chocolate. And if your chocolate has nuts in it, then you’ll be getting some of your selenium intake, too.