Would this be an improvement on eating chocolate? Or would it be worse?

What is it about the chocolate that you enjoy? The taste, that’s it’s a treat, the texture?

Try getting a milk frother and add cocoa powder - this makes gorgeous hot chocolate and honestly requires NO sugar but you could add a small amount and this could be much less than I commercial chocolate.

Also you can do hot chocolate porridge with oats in the same way. Put raspberries on the top makes a proper treat.

Mash double cream with raspberries and chocolate powder in to a paste - intense and no sugar needed.

Also add protein to your sugar. Fri k a glass if milk with your chocolate. Or add nuts. Apparently it lowers the sugar spike.

A level tsp of sugar is around 5g sugar.
A little bar of cadburys or freddo is 11g sugar.

Im trying to choose different swaps. I’ve stopped craving chocolate now when it was a staple in my everyday. And like a pp when I have it I eat it slowly.

Also did the sugar on fruit. A tsp. My thinking was that it’s better sugar in the fruit plus im
getting nutrients. Then gradually reduced to not nothing. Dark chocolate didn’t work for me.

What’s the rest of your diet like? Are you eating enough at mealtimes to satisfy you or are you picking at snacks all day? Is the unhealthy snacking always in the evening? If you’re regularly eating 3 Mars Bars or 2 packets of biscuits in one go and aren’t overweight, I’d wager that you’re not eating enough at mealtimes and quite probably not getting enough nutrients since a lot of your intake is ‘empty’ calories.

I have chocolate every day but I cut it down by buying those Cadbury little bars, I have one a day or fun size chocolate and I have 2 a day. I don’t care about the sugar 😁

Have a glass of dry white wine instead. That should kill the sugar craving.

@Chocccg But how much sugar is in a bar of chocolate versus a spoonful on fruit?
Depends on the bar of chocolate an the size of the spoon.

three Mars bars in one night or two packs of biscuits
What size are the Mars bar and packs of biscuits?

I have to stop eating any after 2 pm 🤪

I swear it’s my antidepressant/ stimulant all in one

You're not going to get the same hit you're craving from fruit, even with sugar on it. Start with eating good chocolate, and wean yourself off the hyper sugary fatty chocolate bars, then reduce the choc and just eat fruit with no sugar.

Dates are nice. You can add peanut butter for an energy boost.

What about Apple slices and strawberries dipped in dark chocolate?

A quick Google says a standard 51g Mars bar contains approximately 31g of sugar, which is roughly equivalent to 7.5 teaspoons.

You need to cut carbs and sugar, go full fat foods such as yoghurt as low fat are full of extra hidden sugar, wean yourself off cod turkey in 5 days and then if you need a sweet fix have a couple of square of dark chocolate (70%). No cakes, biscuits, crisps, sweets etc. and low carbs on your meals (carbs convert to sugars)

The craving will stop and you'll feel so much better and lose weight. Your sleep should improve too.

I followed a diet plan from the NHS for prediabetes and previously could eat and carve the huge family bars of chocolate every night.

Replacing food never works.

You need to eat chocolate if that’s eat you’re craving but just make healthier choices.

If your goal is to eat less sugar, then find low sugar or sugar free alternatives.

I love chocolate too and so I eat lower calorie alternatives.

I rarely buy things like mars bars as they’re over 200kcals for 1 bar, whereas a mars bar ice cream is half the calories and feels more chocolatey and so is more satisfying.

I’ll also eat things like kitkats which are lower in calories but still get a chocolate fix.

Things like hot chocolate drink or dark chocolate are also good alternatives.

Try Tony’s Chocolonely 70% - it’s dark but at the sweeter end of dark. (Bournvillw is horrid
IMHO)

How about making Mars bar Rice Krispie bars? I’m not saying they’re good for you, but they’ll be less bad for you than a couple of Mars bars without veering too far from what you actually want. You’ll get your Mars bar ‘hit’ in a high volume snack that at least has added vitamins. Someone eating 3 Mars bars a day isn’t going to satisfy that craving with a couple of squares Montezuma 80% cocoa on a date - not initially anyway. You’ll could also make Mars bar flapjacks which would fill you up without adding loads of sugar.

Oh this is such a good point ! Texture is so important.

it’s actually quite a long time since I’ve had a mars bar, are they quite gloopy /sticky? So the replacement suggestions of dates might work. You’re going to have to find something to replace that satisfies the texture craving as well as the calories.

😍You'd be scraping me off the ceiling if I had that much!

Probably worse. Fruit already is high in sugar but you want to add more.

@Chocccg- as you are not overweight, it might seem your chocolate intake isn’t an issue, except you are regularly consuming 400-500 calories from chocolate, and not gaining weight, you must be under eating at other meals to balance out this empty calorie consumption.

the reason this might be a problem is if you aren’t getting enough vitamins/minerals etc your body needs, because so much of your daily food/calorie allowance comes from chocolate.

Its interesting it’s evenings and you are binging on chocolate/sweet things. advice to eat fruit or dates won’t work if actually you have hunger to satisfy.

Id go with a plan of a) buying good quality chocolate which you pre-break into small servings and put in Tupperware (so you have to go open another container), you can’t just give up chocolate completely, so give yourself a daily allowance that’s smaller than you currently eat - and b) increasing what you eat through the day. you shouldn’t be hungry after dinner.

(and I always recommend Victoria Beckhams advice of - go clean your teeth after dinner, you are less likely to want to snack with clean teeth.)

I stopped eating chocolate. It was bloody hard and the cravings took 3 weeks to even start to subside but it made a huge difference.

I don’t actually eat much sugary stuff otherwise - cakes or biscuits don’t give me anything close to the satisfaction of chocolate, and gradually I just eliminated the processed sugar too.

I love berries and sweet veg, and I’m not trying to go keto, but without chocolate ruining my palate a strawberry tastes divinely sweet now whereas it would have barely registered before. And greens and whole grains are much tastier.

I’ve had a few goes at this and anytime I lapsed, the cravings take over, and I’m back to the white carbs and fast food too, not just the chocolate. The difference is insane.

I do eat the odd square of 85% - and it tastes amazing. I found it horribly bitter when I was eating milk chocolate. It’s probably a measure of how addicted I actually am that I still have the odd bit.

Healthwise there are a load of small ailments that disappear (I’ve yo-yo’d so I’m confident about this) - I get less headaches, less aches, no nighttime cramps, no sore little spots in my hairline, no dry eyes, no skin crawls, etc.

It’s a really hard addiction to kick because there’s no social support. No one pressures you to just have one cigarette when you give up smoking. Could you do it for a month? Like a dry January? Or raise money for a charity while you do it. If you can get through the first three weeks, that’s the worst of it.

I like the texture and crunch of chocolate, so mu subsititute is greek yoghurt with honey and topped with almonds.
Or a chia seed & coconut milk pudding topped with pecan nuts and maple syrup / honey.

Takes longer to make but is a bit healthier.

Oh i have about 3-6 squares a day!

What about dark chocolate? Or the “darker” one that Cadbury’s do - Dark Milk? I think it’s called.

The problem is that what makes chocolate nice is not just the sugar but the fat. Sweetened fruit won't fell the same as fruit has little fat in it.

How old are you?

I used to be able to eat my body weight in chocolate and biscuits. Then peri menopause hit and I gained four stone.

All lost now thanks to WLI but I think you should drastically cut back. Have you had your cholesterol or blood sugar levels checked recently?