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

Make a batch of these - then drip melted dark chocolate and freeze - take out 2 every morning for your end of day treat.

Why would you add sugar to fruit when it already has loads of sugar in it? Yes, the sugar in fruit is still sugar before anyone comments

Have you tried protein bars? They're more filling but equally sweet as regular chocolate bars. And they're more expensive too so that's an incentive not to eat loads.

You can't really binge on them I don't think as they're kinda sickly. But they are better for you than regular candy I think.

You can compare calories and it's likely they'd be on a par, but a Mars bar is nutritionally void. Fruit at least contains fibre and other nutritinal goodies. The fibre in the fruit also stops you from binging.

I would avoid adding refined sugar totally (including fruit syrups which are worse than your common or garden refined granulated sugar due to fructose content)

I hate rhubarb cooked (makes it too soft) but this sounds absolutely delicious since I love sour and sweet. I love things like Sour Patch Kids but would like a more natural version obviously!

And, if i REALLY need chocolate, I keep a stash of greater than 80% 'proper' chocolate and bust out a cpuple of squares when I need it.

Upgrade slowly to darker chocolate. Start with normal dark cadburies and then move to 70%.

I had to move up to 85 and sometimes 90 as my tastes changed 😆 but there’s only so much you can eat if that. Eat it very slowly.

Eat more protein snacks like low fat baby bels , nuts and seeds.

I like a bowl of still frozen fruit - mango and mixed berries to which I sprinkle a little sugar , takes a while to eat and fills that snack urge when watching tv

Another dates (in moderation) fan here!

I take the stone out and add a splodge of peanut butter.

Better than them snickers bars.

We used to have raw rhubarb and a little bowl of sugar. So sweet and sour

This is what I was going to suggest. 2 dates and some squares of the darkest chocolate you can stand. It gives me the “hit”. I even like to dip the chocolate in a cuppa 😆

the dates (only will buy medjool or noice ones. Anything else is too dry) are so full of fibre and other stuff that I believe it doesn’t spike your blood sugar to much. So you don’t get the same crash. But it tastes like sticky toffee pudding so it’s yummy

@Chocccg In addition to the chocolate the Mars bars have toffee which is just sugar.
Spooning sugar on fruit might be a bit difficult to control the quantity you add.
Also it my not be the "sweet" you crave but also the fattiness of the chocolate.
Could you melt a small amount of dark chocolate and drizzle it lightly over the fruit.
Chocolate tastes stronger when warm so you only need a very small amount.
Then you get the added benefit of the fibre and vitamins in the fruit rather than just empty calories

I came on to recommend dates -but only 4 or 5 a day.

They are packed with fibre, low GI, delicious and sweet but are full of calories.
Honey or maple syrup isn’t that much of a better option than refined sugar tbh, it’s still sugar, albeit a little less processed with some nutritional benefits.

Chocolate is about 50% by weight (so 100g bar is about 50g sugar, plus a lot of fat too which has higher calorific density)

A (5ml) teaspoon of sugar is about 5g of sugar.

A strawberry (low sugar fruit) is about 5g per 100g (much of it is water).

Fruit is not a good substitute for chocolate though - it hits differently primarily given the low fat content which reduces that "had enough" feeling.

My advice:
A) Don't buy chocolate when you shop - easier to resist once and not buy it, than every time you open the cupboard.
B) Buy 80% dark chocolate and only eat small lumps

Which is perfectly true. Mangoes that are sweet, melons that are sweet, would not require any sugar to be added on top.

I suspect that the sugar isn't the problem. It might be worth trying to cut out ultra processed foods. They are designed to be addictive. Non ultra processed sweet foods won't be nearly as bad for you. Make a cake or cookies. Something like this https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/microwave-mug-cake takes no skill and doesn't have all the awful ingredients of a mars bar.

100% is the best though it takes some working up to. I didn’t know Montezuma did a 100% dark orange.

Dates with peanut butter are quite good. Better for that chocolate hit though is Montezumas 100% dark orange chocolate (dark chocolate generally still has loads of sugar but this is sugar free), melt it and add sugar free muslei and make them into cornflake cake type things.

Melt a either dairy, white or dark choc, or all three in separate little bowls, dip the tip of your strawberries in it. Allow to set. Sit back, and enjoy.

Just limit the chocolate increase the fruits until the balance is achieved.
Cutting out chocolate is a way to make you want it more.
Speaking as someone who has had an eating disorder.Good luck.
Also find out why you binge these foods are you lonely..bored .

You need to understand what is driving you to eat three mars bars a day. There have been studies that show that what we eat has a profound impact on our gut biome, which acts as a second brain. If you are consistently eating lots of sugar and other junk you disrupt all the usual signals in your body and basically develop cravings for more and more junk.

you need a complete reset.

A cup of strawberries contains 1.5 teaspoons of sugar.
A mars bar contains 7.5 teaspoons of sugar.
Even if you added a couple of teaspoons of sugar to the strawberries it’s still less than half a mars bar.

My favorite memories are having strawberries dipped in sugar with my gran. She didn’t give me many processed sweets of any type; it was a lot of either home made puddings in which case you couldn’t really eat double or the whole family would be going on about one person hogging it, or thinks like this - sweet cup of tea, strawberries with sugar. I mean, on the whole strawberries with sugar is about 100x better for you than a chocolate bar that has even more sugar than that, plus saturated fat, plus God knows what oils.

I blend up frozen mango with kefir or yoghurt and it honestly kills any sugar cravings (haribo/fizzy jelly shite is my downfall).

Well, fruit would be better in the sense that it’s more fibre, which we all need.

Why not just switch to dark chocolate or dark chocolate dipped frozen banana slices or drizzle some chocolate over medjool dates and stick in the fridge?

You still get the chocolate, but less ultra processed food and more fibre. It’s simply a habit and you need to break it and then you won’t even think about it anymore.