The Chocolate diet

I know what you are thinking…A diet based on chocolate? Impossible! There has got to be a catch! And you would be right, of course...

The Chocolate diet does exist, though; it is called the Chocolate, Pasta, and Popcorn diet, and was devised by Lenny Neimark. The Pasta-Chocolate Diet basically focuses on pastas (spaghetti, macaroni, rigatoni, elbow noodles, shells, linguine, fettuccine), pasta sauces (low-fat, low sodium, mostly nonmeat, but could contain occasional skinless white meat pieces); salads with low-calorie, fat-free dressings (no croutons); vegetables; fresh fruit; popcorn (air-popped, no butter or salt); pop corn toppings including non-fat butter substitutes, vegetable seasoning, garlic powder, soy sauce, vinegar, cayenne, or a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese; chocolate (1 ounce); and water (2 litres per day).

The following items are to be avoided while on the Pasta-Chocolate Diet: Alcoholic beverages, salt/sodium, sugars (artificial sweeteners are okay), oils, oily fruits (avocados, olives, coconuts), high sugar/cal fruits (raisins, figs, dates), fried foods, dairy products, red meats, nuts and seeds, any other unauthorized snacks (chips, junk food, candies, cakes, pies, etc.), coffee/caffeine and carbonated soft drinks

A typical day on the Chocolate Diet would look like this:

Breakfast: Fruit

Mid-morning: Popcorn

Lunch: Pasta+salad

Mid-afternoon: Popcorn

Evening: Pasta and 1 oz of chocolate.

This probably wasn’t exactly what you had in mind when you thought "chocolate diet!"

Certainly it wasn’t what I had in mind. I was more thinking about living on chocolate only and still losing weight…a favourite fantasy of many desperately deprived dieters. This diet, like all unhealthy fad diets, and doomed to fail.

So what is the solution?

Eat chocolate. Eat it as part of a healthy, balanced diet. Eat only the very best, most voluptuous, most luxurious, most irresistible chocolate you can get hold of. Eat it slowly, savour it, and make it a ceremony. Concentrate on the texture, the aroma, how fast it melts in your mouth, the taste in the front and in the back of your mouth…eat chocolate like a connoisseur: pure, unflavoured, with a high cocoa percentage.

Don't wreck a sublime chocolate experience by feeling guilty. ~Lora Brody

Stop everything else while you are eating chocolate; give it the respect it deserves. Do not ban it from the house, do not devour it mindlessly, do not mix it with endless other flavours and tastes…chocolate is one of the things that makes life worth living!

It has a very high fat and very high in sugar content: in large amounts it can be damaging to your health and to your waist line. It would be irresponsible to ignore its contribution to the increase in incidence of insulin resistance, a pre-cursor to diabetes.

We should eat chocolate with the respect it deserves, and we should teach chocolate appreciation and discernment to our children from an early age. Abstaining completely (unless you have a medical condition like diabetes) will only make your body yearn for it more passionately…often ending in an unplanned, disastrous binge, that leaves you feeling devastated and hating and blaming chocolate for your indiscretion.

So make chocolate, the highest quality chocolate you can get hold of, part of your life. Some days would just be impossible to get through with out chocolate… but give it the respect it deserves, so that it doesn’t take its revenge on your weight or your health.

A little chocolate is like a love affair - an occasional sweet release that lightens the spirit. A lot of chocolate is like marriage - it seems so good at first but before you know it you've got chunky hips and a waddle-walk. ~Linda Solegato