Dark chocolate, “health food.”
Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? That’s because the answer, according to many physicians is: “yes.”
You’re probably used to gobbling an entire chocolate bar in less than 10 minutes, and while that’s not something to brag about, it isn’t entirely your fault either.
See, when your brain gets a taste of a highly palatable food, like chocolate, your urge to eat more rises drastically.
Not all chocolate bars are the same however and its one like Cadbury’s Dairy Milk (contains an incredible 79% sugar) that are both addictive and almost designed to give you type2 diabetes
Food definitely affects our emotions. When you eat chocolate, your brain starts to release those “feel good” chemicals such as dopamine, which actually make you feel happy while you’re eating.
Your blood sugar will begin to rise around 15-30 minutes after you eat something sugary.
Caffeine is naturally present in cocoa beans, so just a little bit of chocolate contains some of the stimulant. And after 40 minutes the caffeine will start to kick in.
In fact, a bar of Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate has 31 milligrams of caffeine, which is almost as much as a can of Coke contains.
After a few hours you will start to feel sluggish as your body comes down from it’s sugar high, and you will be craving sugary treats once again. This is a vicious cycle and can lead to you developing life threatening conditions like type2 diabetes, heart disease and obesity.
All of that said its the additives NOT the cocoa itself in the chocolate that are the problem. Replace your CDM with a couple of pieces of 90%+ dark chocolate bar (for example Lindt or Godiva) and you really can have your cake and eat it!