by Mike Geary, Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist
Author of best-sellers:The Fat Burning Kitchen &
The Top 101 Foods that FIGHT Aging
At this point, the anti-fat propaganda has died and almost everybody
understands by now that eating fat doesn't necessarily make you fat.
In fact, it's absolutely imperative to get enough healthy fats in your
diet to keep your hormones balanced, blood sugar under control, and
prevent cravings.
Here are 7 examples of "fatty" foods that can actually HELP you to get lean...
healthy chocolate
1. Super Dark Chocolate (at least 72% cacao content or higher)
It might not be a secret anymore, but yes, dark chocolate (NOT milk chocolate)
can be a very healthy food, even though it is technically calorie dense.
However, I would contend that dark chocolate can actually HELP you to burn
off more body fat if you're the type of person that has a sweet tooth and
likes to eat a lot of desserts.In this case, just 1 or 2 small squares of
dark chocolate can many times satisfy your sweet tooth for only 30 or 40
calories as opposed to 500 calories for a piece of chocolate cake
or a piece of pie.
Also some brands of dark chocolate that are in the mid 70's in % cacao
content or higher, can have a fairly high ratio of fiber content
(I've seen some brands have 5 grams of fiber out of 15 grams of total
carbs per serving), and relatively low sugar content compared to
the amount of healthy fats.
In fact, that's one of the "tricks" I use to select a good quality chocolate...
I look for more total fat than total carbs
(or about the same number of grams of each).
The importance of that fact is that it means many dark chocolates will
not greatly affect your blood sugar and will have a fairly blunted blood
sugar response compared to other "sweets".
In addition, dark chocolate is also very rich in healthful antioxidants,
including a powerful compound called theobromine which has been shown to
help lower blood pressure and have other health benefits.
The fat content in a good dark chocolate should come solely from the natural
healthy fats occuring in cocoa butter and not from any other added fats.
Any chocolates with added fats or other additives will generally not be as healthy.
The reason I say to choose dark chocolates with at least 72% cacao content is
that the higher the % of cacao, the lower the % of sugar.
However, this does mean that any chocolate over 80% cacao content will generally
start to get a more bitter taste and have very little sweetness.
If you like this type of taste, then the higher % cocao, the better.
Otherwise, a good 75% dark chocolate is in my opinion an almost perfect
combination of lightly sweet with a rich chocolate taste.
Just remember to keep those daily quantities of chocolate small as it is calorie dense!
You can also reap the benefits of the antioxidants and fiber without all of the
calories by using organic unsweetened cocoa powder in your smoothies or other recipes.
For the other six FATTY foods that can help to get your stomach flat please click on the link below.
6 More Fatty Foods to Help Flatten Your Stomach
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