Something I come across on a daily basis is the surprise of my patients when I prescribe chocolate in their nutritional plan. They usually write to me thanking me for allowing them to consume chocolate, along with a lot of doubts regarding this food since it was one of the first things they suppressed when they began to take care of themselves. But, what do we mean by taking care of ourselves?🤔

Taking care of yourself goes beyond physical appearance, food, quantities…

Taking care of yourself is also being well, feeling comfortable with what you do, with yourself, with the lifestyle you lead, with what you eat, with what you feel with what you eat.

What would be the point of training and eating “10” if we are not feeling well with ourselves?

What would be the point of leading a lifestyle that we feel prohibits us, disconnects us from our essence, from what we like?

Taking care of yourself and enjoying yourself can and should go hand in hand, therefore, don't think that to take care of yourself you have to ban the foods you like the most and the least, when it comes to chocolate.

Chocolate is a great ally for health, but we have to keep in mind that not just anyone is.

According to the FEC (Spanish Heart Foundation) chocolate is one of the 10 foods that we should include in our diet since “it helps to restore the flexibility of the arteries and it prevents leukocytes from sticking to the walls of blood vessels.”

When we talk about chocolate being healthy, we are referring to cocoa, so it is important that we take into account the amount of cocoa it contains.

A dark chocolate with 85% cocoa is considered healthy in the general population as long as the dose consumed is controlled, but do not worry if you are still one of those who feel that it is not prepared to consume a chocolate 85% cocoa, you can start with 70% and go up😬

As the percentage of cocoa rises, you will notice that it contains more fat, but it is something positive since, the more fat, the less sugar. This fat comes from cocoa and is a healthy fat, a food for our good bacteria. The more good fats we consume, the more we will feel satisfied, we will improve our hormonal system, metabolism, immune system, we will control our cholesterol levels...

On the other hand, the more sugar chocolate contains, our satiety decreases and we do not take advantage of all the benefits mentioned above.

Cocoa contains antioxidants that allow us to reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases since it contains oleic acid and reduce cholesterol levels.

Several studies state that, thanks to its theobromine content, it is good for the brain contributing to the proper functioning of our blood flow to the brain and heart.

If you feel down, chocolate can also be your great ally thanks to the fact that it has about 25-35 mg of caffeine (another fact to keep in mind so as not to stop drinking it when what we want is take care of ourselves) which at the same time will help you improve your attention, improve your performance and increase your alertness. In addition, this amount of caffeine can help you combat fatigue and at the same time, as it contains phenylethylamine, it can improve your feeling of well-being since phenylethylamine is responsible for releasing endorphins into our brain.

Therefore, the fact of forbidding you to consume this food can even be counterproductive. If you are looking to take care of yourself, enjoy the process, do not deprive yourself or punish yourself, just learn to eat.I recommend our Protein Crunch to kill the sweet tooth. You can add it as a topping on anything you can think of!

The important thing is to know what foods you should prioritize in your day to day, the quality and benefits of all of them, how you should consume them, at what time, what dose😉

It is as important to take care of your diet as your physical activity as your mind and your state of mind, so stop prohibiting yourself, punishing yourself, blaming yourself and take advantage of each and every one of the benefits known to this day! chocolate today!🍫