This year, quit being your worst enemy (even when you’re scoffing chocolate)
Around this time of the year, many of us are making resolutions: to do more exercise, quit smoking, drink less, stop eating meat, lose weight. Sadly, most of us won’t succeed. Research shows that fewer than 50% of people who make a New Year’s resolution will have stuck to it three months in.
In these unpredictable times, should we even bother to make any resolutions? It still seems as if you want to change something; the New Year is the time to do it, giving you some added oomph to succeed. However, try being kind to yourself while establishing new, better-for-you habits.
Whilst some people might think that ditching chocolate is the best way to get their New Year’s off to a healthy start, it’s important to not shun the things you love: everything can be enjoyed, in moderation. Chocolate is not your problem; it can be your solution.
If you want to have your chocolate and pull your sweet tooth in the process, you’ll have to consider dark. Dark chocolate is the preferred option because it contains higher levels of cocoa and less sugar. Research also shows that dark chocolate can help you control consumption after you eat.
The tolerance you have for chocolate can change in any direction you wish. Here’s how you do it:
- Start with a chocolate that’s a little darker than you’re used to. Dark chocolate is an acquired taste and Lindt Excellence has many ways to make the journey pleasurable. The portfolio consists of a variety of cocoa rates that increase gradually in cocoa percentage (70%, 78%, 85%, 90%, 99%). These delicately thin bars promise to excite the senses with their complex flavour and aromatic profiles.
- Start with the lowest percentage, 70%, and stay at that level until your tastebuds adapt (one to two weeks, depending on how affected your sweet tooth is), then move up again. In this way, you’re basically taking your own brain by the lobes and using the principles of gustatory habituation to move its preferences in the direction you want.
- This brain training technique translates to other foods as well, and you’ll start to favour other foods that have less sugar in them as well. You won’t want the sugary foods and snacks as much anymore.
- In this way, chocolate is not the problem for your sugar intake and excessive sweet tooth – it’s the solution.