Ode to Chocolate

My Not-So-Secret Love Affair

Dear Chocolate,

How I love you!  How grateful I am to you for keeping my cholesterol down; therefore, allowing me to continue harassing my younger brothers about your superiority.

I don’t want all you little-itty-bitty creamy chocolate morsels get excited that I am addressing your goodness and delight. I am not!  I am only talking about Dark Chocolate 60% - 75 % dark.  After 75% you may as well be powderized and crammed into a cocoa container for baking.

On a bad day, there is nothing like grabbing a handful chocolate chips, a large spoon and a jar of peanut butter. If I allowed myself to eat chocolate before 11 am, I’d have it for breakfast.    Eating chocolate fast is much better than eating it slow.  People will say that eating chocolate slow means ‘you are enjoying the chocolate.’  You are not enjoying it; you are trying to eat as little as possible.  The faster you eat it the more you can eat.  The more you can eat the more your body responds.  (Don’t think about the waistline.)

It’s all a matter of perspective.  Are you going to view chocolate as intaking sugar or keeping  your cholesterol down?  Don’t feel guilty when eating chocolate. Unless you are eating that terrible white chocolate or milk chocolate stuff, that is just nasty!  You need to worry less about the amount of sugar you are eating (inhaling, maybe) and recognize it as a health benefit.  Chocolate should be added to the diet when high cholesterol is genetic.  It’s a natural way of combating the terrible effects caused by high cholesterol.  By the way, don’t let your physician warn you about sugar intake and diabetes.  This is about cholesterol and being heart healthy.

Sincerely,

Your loyal companion