Easter and chocolate have been hand in hand my entire life. Apart from the Easter ‘feast’, I used to go through up to a Cadbury Family block a day for the rest of the year – and then tried to exercise it off.
Why was I addicted to the chocolate?
Was it the chocolate or the sugar?
Many people tell me they can give up sugar and carbs but not the chocolate. This got me to thinking about what makes the sugar, and carbohydrate, palatable.
Have you tried just eating sugar or carbohydrate by itself? It doesn’t taste that good. Sugar beyond a teaspoon doesn’t taste that pleasant. Try having a glass of water with 15 teaspoons of sugar in it, the equivalent of a can of soft drink. You can’t do it without wanting to heave it back up.
Try some 90% dark chocolate (6.7% sugar) and compare it to the ‘milk’ chocolate (50% sugar). I can only have a small amount of the dark chocolate and that’s enough. It doesn’t taste that good. Let’s stop kidding ourselves. It’s the sugar that we are addicted to and not the cocoa.
By the way, who was the marketing genius who came up with the term ‘milk’ chocolate? ‘Milk’ chocolate is SUGAR chocolate. Marketing the chocolate as a healthy dairy product is just another misleading marketing ploy, as per usual.
The sugar and particularly the fructose component is what drives the behaviour. It is the chemical which plays a major role in hunger and making you want another piece of chocolate or treat or cake or biscuit. Add to that the shiny bright wrappers that advertise the sugar to you and it’s hard to miss them in the shopping aisle. Buy me, eat me…
The food industry mimics nature. Fruit is the natural source of sugar and Mother Nature does the same advertising.
When fruit is at its ripest Mother Nature does the same advertising. The fruit is brighter, bigger, shinier and tastier. It’s brilliant. In nature we, as animals, need to have as much sugar and carbohydrate as we can gorge ourselves on at that time of plenty to deliberately get fat to survive the winter hibernation.
Our problem is that sugar is around all year in the shops ‘advertising’ itself for consumption. You rarely see chocolate in a plain wrapper. Lollies are brightly coloured for the same reason. Even sugar is bleached away from its natural brownish colour.
Remember the marketing. Enjoy a treat if you wish but don’t extend the time frame.
Easter this year for me is about family and community. We will be indulging in some feasting but not a lot of chocolate. All the best and be safe.