Why Choose Chocolate Over a Power Bar?

Why Choose Chocolate Over a Power Bar header

I travel a lot on business, and it’s not always easy to find food to keep my energy levels high.  I used to rely on Lara Bars, but they have too much sugar. For the past two years, I replaced them with 90 percent dark chocolate bars. What a huge difference! The healthy fat content keeps me satisfied and fuels my brain.  Chocolate is full of polyphenols and antioxidants that fight free radicals.  It also has a mild amount of caffeine and theobromine that enhance my performance.

Plus, it’s amazing how nice flight attendants can be when you share a piece of dark chocolate with them.

New research from the UK shows that indulging in large quantities of chocolate is healthy.

No, you’re neither dreaming nor are you reading The Onion. The study came out in August 2010, and found that people who ate 45 grams of QUALITY chocolate (about half of a large bar) every single day for eight weeks had improved cholesterol levels without any negative consequences.  The research showed that 85% dark chocolate high in polyphenols (not milk chocolate) raised healthy HDL cholesterol levels without affecting insulin resistance, inflammation, or weight gain.

Chocolate is great stuff and makes us all feel good. After reading this study, there’s no longer any need to feel guilty about treating yourself.  In fact, you can toss out that low-fat granola bar, replace it with chocolate, and actually do something good for yourself. Just make sure the chocolate is 85% cacao (very dark) chocolate.  

Sadly, milk chocolate, most truffles, chocolate confections, and candies, will not make you Bulletproof at work, or at home, because the sugar creates inflammation.

I’ve sampled high-end chocolate from around the world and finally settled on Lindt 90% dark chocolate as my preferred source. Lindt is bound by the European standards for mold levels in chocolate.  The chocolate is surprisingly smooth and sweet for a dark chocolate, and it’s lower in toxins than typical chocolate. In fact, many people who are “allergic” to chocolate are just responding to the naturally occurring toxins in cheap chocolate.

Sometimes, after I’ve had a cup of Bulletproof® Coffee with breakfast, and later find myself snacking on dark European chocolate.  As I sit across a negotiating table from a competitor, who is eating a bag of fat-free, soy, pretzel nuggets in a desperate attempt to prop up his flagging late afternoon energy, a little tear comes to my eye as I think about what an unfair advantage I’m going to have because I eat Bulletproof food. 🙂

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High-cocoa polyphenol-rich chocolate improves HDL cholesterol in Type 2 diabetes patients.  D.D. Mellor, T. Sathyapalan, E. S. Kilpatrick, S. Beckett, and S.L. Atkin

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