Be Healthy by Eating Dark Chocolate

 

A new year has arrived, which means many of us have set goals that we’d like to accomplish in 2015. From spending more quality time with family or learning a new hobby to taking an evening break from technology and volunteering, there are many ways to embrace a new year in a positive way. Among those ideas, there are quite a few people who will include losing weight or becoming healthier (including myself!).

Here at Delysia Chocolatier, we recently discovered an article that found eating dark chocolate provides more satiety over milk chocolate, thus impacting overall food consumption. A study was conducted at the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Copenhagen in Germany to compare the effects of both dark and milk chocolate on not only appetite, but also overall caloric intake. The study used 16 male subjects, in two sessions. In one session they consumed milk chocolate and in the other session dark chocolate (same calorie content in each session over the course of 15 minutes). In both sessions the subjects were asked to record their appetite every thirty minutes and at over two hours, they were offered pizza to eat until comfortably full. After eating the pizza, their calorie intake was recorded. What they found was that when the subjects consumed dark chocolate, their overall calorie intake was 15% lower than when they consumed the milk chocolate. The subjects commented that the dark chocolate made them feel less tempted to consume additional sweet, salty, or fatty foods.

Coffee dark chocolate bark
Coffee dark chocolate bark

Let’s not forget the many nutritional benefits of dark chocolate including:

  • Plentiful in fiber, iron, magnesium, and copper
  • Contains a wide variety of powerful antioxidants, including polyphenols, flavanols, and catechins, and in some studies, even beats out acai berries in terms of antioxidant activity
  • Flavanols from cocoa can improve blood flow to the skin and protect it against sun-induced damage, as well as increase skin density and hydration

So this year, consider incorporating more dark chocolate as a nutritional boost and way to curb cravings, in order to help reach your new goals. Our Coffee Dark Chocolate bark (shown below) and Dark Chocolate Truffle Collection might just be the perfect way to kick off this resolution.

Nicole Patel

Nicole Patel is the proprietor of and chocolatier for Delysia Chocolatier. In 2006 while pregnant with her first son, Nicole made a batch of chocolate truffles as holiday gifts. To the delight of friends and family, she continued to create chocolates as a way to relieve stress from her corporate engineering job. In 2008, a chance trip to Becker Vineyards led to Nicole being the first in Texas to make truffles using local wines. Within five years, what started as a hobby turned Delysia into one of the Top Ten Chocolatiers in the Americas, as selected by the International Chocolate Salon.