One of our patients gave us chocolate. There are many patients who do liposuction surgery at Evita Clinic. So, also there are many people who pay particular attention to weight management. Good body shape and weight loss is always a big concern for our Evita Clinic staffs, too. However, because the delicious chocolates were in front of me, I was quickly eaten up a lot.

As soon as I felt guilty, I thought, ‘How good would it be if this delicious, sweet chocolate helped me diet?’ In general, diet food, chicken breast without sauce, vegetable salad without dressing, boiled egg whites come up. Is diet only possible with this type of food, not something like chotolate?

You may have heard the word ‘chocolate diet’ once. Chocolate is widely known to be made from cacao berries. The theory of the chocolate diet is based on the fact that the polyphenol contained in this cacao berries inhibits the absorption of fat in the body. Theobromine also inhibits appetite, and it is logical to say that eating chocolate with high cacao content helps diet.

Let’s learn more about polyphenols. A substance in which one of the hydrogens of the benzene ring (C6H6) is substituted with a hydroxyl group (-OH) is called ‘phenol’. A substance that has two or more hydroxy groups is called polyphenol, or ‘phenol’. Compounds with similar structures are found in nature. It means that there are many different types of polyphenols. In addition to cacao, catechins in green tea, strawberries and grapes, and black beans are all polyphenolic compounds, such as colored anthocyanin pigments these kinds of fruits.

One of the benefits of polyphenols is that they have antioxidant properties that help maintain health and prevent disease. Above all, it prevents the absorption of cholesterol into the digestive tract, so it acts to lower the blood cholesterol level. The fact that it inhibits fat absorption can be understood in this context.

Theobromine, on the other hand, is one of the alkali components in cacao, a unique bitter taste and fragrance of chocolate. This theobromine ingredient promotes appetite-suppressing hormone secretion, so regular intake can prevent overeating. 30 minutes before meals, if you take one or two pieces of chocolate (10 ~ 20g) periodically, you can see the effect of a diet.

It is important to limit your intake like this in order to see the effects of diet with chocolate. It is recommended that you take several times of 50g of chotolate per day. No milk chocolate and white chocolate, dark chocolate which is cacao content is more than 70% should be eaten, and very little amount is suggestive to eat before meals.

I feel sorry that we can not eat enough as much as we want, but the habit of eating this small portion separately is a good eating habit for ultimate diet. When food is divided into small portions so that fasting is not felt, the brain will not feel hunger. The brain recognizes that ‘my body is getting enough nutrition’, and soon there is less chance of binge eating and less fat accumulation.

On the other hand, there are people who have a binge eating habit. They did not eat breakfast and lunch and starved all day. And they only eat about 1 dinner after work. They consume large amounts of food at the same time. If we spend such a long time on an empty stomach, our brain is perceived as an urgent situation because the body can not consume nutrients. Then, when you eat food, you will save as much nutrients as possible in preparation for the long hunger in the future, and you will also accumulate a relatively large amount of fat. As a result, it is not good for diet.

One of the most important factors for a diet is that it gives you a feeling of fullness so you do not feel an empty stomach. However, if you eat the same food several times, you will not be fed because you are bored with same food, and then you may starve again and lead to binge eating again. Therefore, rather than eating just the same food which you makes bored, you can make diets efficiently by making a variety of diets based on low calorie foods and eating them frequently.

Have you heard about cacao nibs? Cacao nibs, which is called ‘food of the gods’ in Greek, ferments cacao berries and then it is dried and roasted, peeled and crushed to a suitable size. It is a grain of cacao fruit. Because cacao chocolate is sweet, it is easy to think that cacao nives are also sweet, but when you try it, it tastes little bit bitter.

We mentioned about polyphenol previous, but it is said that catechin, which is a lot included in green tea, also inhibits fat absorption as a kind of polyphenol component. This cacao nibs contains more catechins than green tea, which inhibits fat accumulation and absorption, promoting vascular health as well as metabolism. It is also good food for diet. This cacao nibs can be chewed like a snack, or it can be used for tea or a variety of dishes.

If you want to eat without cooking, you can divide it into small amounts and keep it in your car or office. If it is annoying to take out frequently to eat often, please keep it in various places around the living circle. Cacao nibs can be eaten as easily as lightly chewing nuts.

If you want to drink tea with cacao nibs, you can boil it in a kettle, or you can just pour hot water after putting cacao nibs in a cup. It is even better because this can be a solution of water supplying. If you boil tea with cacao nibs, you can get a bit of a bitter taste. In this case, you can also mix a little low-fat milk.

Cooking can be applied in various recipes, but to minimize calories, sprinkle on a salad, or make a bar with cereal. Add two tablespoons of oatmeal with two tablespoons of cacao nives and mix with almonds. Add maple syrup and sprinkle with a spoonful of fried in a frying pan for about 5 minutes. Then, put it in the bowl as you want and then harden it. However, in this case, nuts and syrup are added and they increase the calories. Therefore, we recommend to eat only small amount in one time.

We learned about the efficacy of chocolate and cacao nibs. But at the same time we should remember it is a just food, not a medicinal product. If you are on a diet, you may try small quantities of chocolates rather than avoiding chocolate-like desserts at all.

If you make a living by eating a little amount of food in one time, rather than eat too much in short time, it will also help to reduce binge eating and fat absorption, ultimately helping you to develop a healthy lifestyle.