The Right Way To Cheat

If you’re dieting, the best kind of chocolate is no chocolate. However, if you’re allowing yourself a small cheat, then go with dark chocolate. In an experiment performed at the University of Copenhagen, 16 students were given 100 grams of chocolate for breakfast on two different occasions. One morning they were given dark chocolate and the other milk chocolate. When they ate dark chocolate, the subjects reported being less hungry afterward and ate fewer calories at lunch compared to when they ate milk chocolate. The dark chocolate had slightly more calories, as well as more grams of fat and protein, but fewer carbs and sugar than the milk chocolate. It’s likely that because of the greater fat content in dark chocolate it passes more slowly through the digestive tract, causing the release of appetite-blunting hormones. Considering that dark chocolate is much richer in antioxidants, it’s a much better choice when you cheat.