Let’s be honest. Most diets don’t include chocolate. In fact, most diets will tell you chocolate is part of the problem. Lucky for us chocoholics, the research just doesn’t support this assertion. Actually, studies are finding that chocolate consumption can be linked to lower weight. The obvious question: How can chocolate help me lose weight?
To be truthful, we don’t entirely know. It’s not that we don’t have some theories, but proving why is a lot harder than observing a correlation. Here are three theories that have been put out there.
Chocolate Satisfies That Sweet Craving
When you’re craving sweets, you have a lot of options that range from fruit to pure sugar. If you’re like me, you head in the direction of sugar and your body stores all those calories away just in case. Have you ever felt like the more sugar you eat, the more sugar you want? Chocolate may stop this cycle, which means you’ll consume fewer calories and weigh less.
Chocolate Provides Needed Nutrients
When we’re missing nutrients in our diets, our bodies tell us to eat to get the vitamins and minerals we need. Since junk food doesn’t have much in the way of nutrition, no matter how much we eat, our bodies are still going to tell us we’re missing something. Once again, we consume calories we don’t need and our bodies just store them away. Cocoa actually has a ton of nutrients, so the theory is that chocolate may be filling in the nutritional blanks and turning off the “eat more” message. Less eating means less calories and less weight.
Chocolate Effects Our Genes
Researchers in Japan fed two groups of rats a high-fat diet, one with cocoa and one without cocoa. The results found that the group consuming cocoa had significantly lower weight and body fat at the end. When they looked closer, they found the cocoa group had genes that encourage the body to process and store fat turned off and genes involved in burning fat turned on. If cocoa has the same effect in the human body, chocolate could really be helping our bodies lose weight, not just reducing our calorie consumption.
It’s always possible to have too much of a good thing. If you binge on chocolate, not only will you probably make yourself sick, but you’ll gain weight. On the other hand, if eating chocolate makes you feel satisfied with far fewer calories in your diet, or even changes how your body handles those calories, it may help you lose weight. So, if you can keep it in moderation, you don’t have to be completely deprived of chocolate to lose weight.
