Chocolate 'may help keep people slim'

[CowWhisperer]

I hate to spoil it guys but don't go eating chocolate thinking it will make you healthy. It's high in sugar, calories, and fat, so it doesn't matter whether it helps your BMI or anything like that, it's just not healthy. This is like saying "cigarettes reduce malaria because mosquitoes don't like being around smoke". It sort of helps in one way but is really bad for you in all other ways.

Like I said in my prior post, just because something is high in calories and fat, doesn't make it necessarily bad. Moderation is key, and matching certain foods with your activity level is good as well. I eat dark chocolate, cashews/almonds, bananas, almost every morning or with my lunch, because those are times when I am most likely to burn it off, so thus my body is not going to convert it to fat, it's nutrient-filled fuel...I wouldn't eat these particular foods right before bedtime or as my last meal, etc. for obvious reasons. Yes, Chocolate=high in calories, moderately fatty and sugary, more or less...bananas=carbs, and cashews/almonds=high fat/calories...BUT each is beneficial. Now don't go eating a Snickers bar thinking "oh chocolate is beneficial!"..that's not how it works. The darker the chocolate, the more minimally processed it is with unneeded added ingredients...dark chocolate is PROVEN to be beneficial, despite calories; it lowers Cholesterol and blood pressure, plus the benefits of the flavanoids that are antioxidants. Cashews, almonds and other nuts are a great in-between snack I use to curb hunger if I didn't eat enough in a prior meal, plus they are full of protein and Omega-3 fatty acids, which is great for the body. Have they the same amount of calories and fat as a doughnut? likely, yes. Are they both utilized in the body the same way? no. Be smart about the carbs, fat, calories, and sugars you are taking in, and you'll keep your good health.

[sgreger1]

Now don't go eating a Snickers bar thinking "oh chocolate is beneficial!"..that's not how it works

Oh I agree completely, but this was my general point ^^^. Some dark chocolate on a banana with nuts is nothing but healthy really, because it's not empty carbs. But no one should think eating a snickers is going to do them much good. Nothing wrong with a little flavor, but most chocolate is not pure dark chocolate and I keep hearing people say that eating a hersheys bar is good for you, which isn't exactly how it works like you said.

[sgreger1]

Fat does not make you fat...

Ken

No fat can be very good for you in many circumstances. For example a high-fat diet inhibits sugars in the body and since caner feeds off sugars it reduced cancer/tumor growth. A high-fat diet has proven useful for many with cancer. I mean don't go eating a bunch of hershey's chocolate bars thinking it's going to make you healthy because I can tell you from experience it won't. A little dark choclate in moderation is fine though.

My point is that BMI doesn't really mean everything and eating chocolate isn't some sure-fire way of being healthy. Like everything, it should be eaten in moderation.

[CowWhisperer]

Yeah exactly I wasn't tryin to attack or downplay your post or anything like that, but definitely no candy bar is going to be beneficial to you, unless you get the kind that truthwolf was mentioning...I forget the brands, but you can get different levels of cacao in the chocolate bar by percentage, and those would be beneficial if you cracked them in smaller pieces and ate a little everyday. I believe many are made in the U.K., New Zealand, etc. and their chocolate is pretty pure and good, next to our pathetic excuse for a chocolate bar hahah

[Saville]

Chocolate may help keep people slim. Dark chocolate may help us; because it so rich, we need to eat it in a small quantity. Adding small amounts of dark chocolate to our diet may help our health. The people who eat dark chocolate (with a high percentage of raw cacaos) tend to be thinner. People who ate dark chocolate a few times a week were, on average, slimmer than those who ate it occasionally.



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