Posted on February 14, 2019 by Emily Forbes

British Heart Foundation is challenging everyone in February to give up their beloved chocolate in support of the charity. This is not just giving up chocolate bars but everything that contains cocoa, including the sprinkles on your cappuccino. They have named the chocolate detox challenge “Dechox”.  At some point in our lives, heart disease is likely to affect someone we know so it is a good charity to support. And cutting down on the sweet treat can definitely have benefits for our waistline and health.

With my clients, I find there are usually two groups; the crisp group or the chocolate group. Kryptonite that can sabotage all diet efforts. When you know you have a particular weakness, I find it best to completely remove it for a while so that you aren’t tempted in the slightest. There is no such thing as one piece or one handful. So for the chocolate fiend, the chocolate detox challenge could just be the boost you need to get your diet back on track. Of course, if savoury snacks are your weakness, perhaps you could give those up instead to gain the benefits?

Facts about chocolate:

  • Cocoa is collected from the seeds of the Theobroma Cacao fruit tree.
  • It takes 400 beans to make 1 pound of chocolate and each tree produces approximately 2500 beans.
  • The Aztecs used the cacao bean as currency, considere! more valuable than gold dust.
  • White chocolate only contains cocoa butter and not cocoa solids or liquor, so technically isn’t really chocolate.
  • The Cacao tree is native to central and South America but now 70% of the world’s supply comes from West Africa.
  • The first chocolate bar was made in England in 1842. All hail Cadbury’s.
  • Chocolate is the only edible substance to melt around 93° F, just below the human body temperature. That’s why chocolate melts so easily on your tongue.
  • In celebration of its 100th birthday, Thorntons created the world’s largest chocolate bar – weighing a record breaking 5,792.50kg.
  • Chocolate contains a high amount of theobromine which is slowly digested by your pet and high levels can be fatal.
  • In 1930 Ruth Wakefield realised she was out of baker’s chocolate and mixed broken piece of Nestle chocolate into her cookie dough, expecting the chocolate to be absorbed and create chocolate cookies. Instead, she accidentally created chocolate chip cookies, and later sold the idea to Nestle in return for a lifetime supply of chcolate.

In case you can’t live without chocolate at all, here is a recipe for tiffin made with carob which might help you through.

Good luck!

Emily