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

[Chocccg]

I eat so much chocolate and I know it’s so unhealthy. Aside from that I do eat generally well and I’m not overweight. But I know I eat too much sugar as I can easily eat say three Mars bars in one night or two packs of biscuits etc.

I’ve tried cutting it back and not buying it as often but find it incredibly hard. I wondered if I put a bit of sugar on fruit would that be a start to improve or is that actually more sugar than what’s in a bar of chocolate?!

@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

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

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

Another dates (in moderation) fan here!

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

Better than them snickers bars.

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

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.

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.

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!

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)

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.

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

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

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?

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.

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

Oh i have about 3-6 squares a day!

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.

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.

@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.)

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.