It's the New Year, and if you're like a lot of people, you want to cut down on sweets. But that's a tall order when many of us are chocolate addicts! Thankfully, The List'sTeresa Strasser is putting a stop to Chocoholism is on The Breakdown.
Postdoctoral Researcher Alexandra Difeliceantonio, led a study where she found that “as you eat chocolate you get this surge of this chemical (enkephalin) and this surge makes you want to keep eating more chocolate.”
The co-authors on that study were Omar Mabrouk, Robert Kennedy, and Kent Berridge. The experiments were performed at the University of Michigan.
Board Certified Holistic Nutritionist, Jolene Goring, gave us a list of tips to curb your Chocoholic cravings:
1. Switch to dark chocolate
Milk chocolate has little to no nutritional goodness. It’s just a lump of fat and sugar. Dark chocolate has nutrients and less sugar. It also has a richer taste so a little bite will satisfy you! There are even some health benefits that a small amount of dark chocolate daily, will help you to be happier and healthier! And definitely avoid white chocolate, which is much less healthy than your other options.
2. Reframe your thinking
Instead of thinking “I shouldn’t have that chocolate”, change your mindset. Think “I want to be strong and healthy” or “I’m going to treat myself by having a relaxing bubble bath.”
3. Make a deal with yourself
If you’re going to indulge, work out first. This will boost your metabolism so that less of the indulgence gets stored around your waist. This also prevents the common thinking “I’ll work out tomorrow to make up for this….” when tomorrow turns into next week turns into never. You could also make a ‘deal with yourself’ to not have chocolate a certain day, or have it only on a certain day.
Alexandra stresses that it isn’t just chocolate that can become so addicting. Any high-fat, high-sugar food is likely to cause this surge in enkephalin and spur you to eat more of it.
