The Chocolate Diet
The Ortiz Diet: Chocolate as a Weight Loss Dietary Supplement.
By Efrain Ortiz, Jr. efrain@cocoalizard
www.cocoalizard.com
Always coordinate any diet with your doctor’s supervision.
Recommended chocolate type: Dark Chocolate
Dark Chocolate should not be less than 65% (Cacao or Cocoa)
Strive to consume cacao in higher concentrations. Slowly develop your chocolate range.
As you develop your taste for 65% cacao, try different brands of chocolate only bars. Do not be tempted by the flavored chocolates. You will find that tasting a 70% Lindt chocolate bar will taste different than a 70% Dagoba, based on the companies cacao source, fermentation, roasting, conching and tempering. Remember to have fun with your new diet. Try different companies’ pure cacao chocolate bars. Make it a goal to taste a different chocolate bar every day, believe me there are enough chocolate bars to keep you trying new ones for a long time. Use the diet to learn about the origins of the cacao, maybe finally learn a little more geography? If a company makes a 70% cacao bar with beans from different countries, try them all. You’ll be amazed how the origin of the cacao alters the flavor of the chocolate. Once you’ve acquired a palate for darker chocolates, start trying more extravagant chocolate companies; such as Amedei or Michel Cluizel.
How to read the chocolate bar:
1. The first ingredient should always be the fruit itself; the primary ingredient you should look for is cacao*. The ingredient list may also refer to it as; Cocoa, Cacao powder, Cocoa powder, Cacao paste, Cocoa paste, cacao liquor, or cocoa liquor.
2. If you get a chocolate with cocoa butter, it should never be the first ingredient.
3. Sugar is okay in chocolate in moderation. If the chocolate bar specifies the type of sugar used, try to get cane sugar.
4. Vanilla or Vanillin: If vanillin is listed as an ingredient, do not consume the chocolate. Vanilla is okay, vanillin is not okay. Vanillin is a cheap imitation vanilla. It makes the consuming of chocolate less enjoyable.
5. Soy lecithin or soya lecithin is acceptable in medium to lower end chocolate bars. The best chocolates do not use soy or soya lecithin as an emulsifier.
6. Never consume chocolate with milk fat as this will nullify the weight loss benefits you are looking for out of chocolate
Do not consume more than 4oz of chocolate a day; the benefits are reversed if too much is consumed.
Start with one 3oz per day.
Distribute the consumption throughout the day (Best if taken 1 hour before eating)
· Eat one small piece in the morning, before breakfast.
· Eat another small piece between breakfast and lunch.
· Eat another small piece after lunch. Eat another small piece 1 hour before dinner.
OR
· Eat a small piece every two hours of the day.
The general idea is to keep a small amount of chocolate in the body throughout the day. If small quantities of a 3oz bar are consumed throughout the day, you can expect to eat chocolate approximately every 2-3 hours.
How to measure success and positively reinforce the chocolate diet?
Of course, we must measure ourselves to know if we are improving. So weigh-in in the morning and at night every day. Seeing the pounds melt away, should be a great motivator.
Note: Keep in mind that weight fluctuates throughout the day as food is consumed and processed. The morning to evening weigh-in should provide an idea as to how much food and drink is being consumed.
It is very important that you drink water throughout the day. Cacao is a diuretic, so you'll lose a lot of water and this may lead to constipation in some people.
Tips to compliment the chocolate diet and help accelerate the loss of weight.
Tip #1: Eat as close to nature as possible. Try to eliminate the food ingredient middlemen that run the food through the lab and add all kinds of chemicals to flavor the food. The ingredients on the label of foods should be recognizable as food. For example, orange juice should only have juice and maybe water in the ingredients. If the orange juice has more ingredients than mentioned, don’t consume. Get the idea?
Tip #2: Do not buy/consume products which contain High Fructose Corn Syrup.
Tip #3: Once the chocolate consumption regiment has begun, during meals, we must ask ourselves:
· Am I full?
· Starting to feel full?
· Am I eating what’s in front of me as a challenge, to see if I can clear the plate?
(No matter how much food is left on the plate, stop as soon as you are satisfied. Better yet, stop before you are satisfied and wait a few minutes to give the brain time to recognize it has satisfactory quantities of food in the stomach.)
· Did I remember to eat nutritious food? (This may sound like an absurd question, but if you are not careful with the strength and quantity of chocolate, the chocolate may make you forget to eat entirely. Please do not use chocolate as a replacement for a healthy, nutritious meal.
Because cacao has a hunger suppressing effect, we must leverage that property to help us eat less, don't use it to skip eating meals.
Remember: The order of ingredients on a product indicates the percentage quantity of that ingredient.
Examples:
Product A: 88% Chocolate Bar
Ingredients: Cocoa mass, sugar, low fat cocoa powder, soya lecithin.
Product B: Soda
Ingredients: Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, caffeine
Note: Because product B is a can of soda, its first ingredient is always water, because water makes up the highest percentage of content. Unfortunately it’s typically followed by High Fructose Corn Syrup, which should be avoided.
* Cacao: A tropical fruit that grows within 20 degrees north and south of the equator. Cacao comes in three different varieties, Criollo, Trinatario and Forastero. Forastero is the cacao found in most abundance due to the trees hardy nature. The majority of the world’s chocolate is made with Forastero cacao from western Africa. Unfortunately, Forastero cacao lacks the complex and wonderful flavors that Trinitario and Criollo cacao have to offer.