Incredible! Did someone in the U.S. lose 105 kg by eating chocolate?

Text and images / Excerpted from "The Romantic Chocolate Course by the Seoul Sweetheart Chef"

A few years ago, the chocolate diet was popular in Japan; in the U.S., there was also a case of a man weighing nearly 200 kg who lost weight by eating chocolate, reducing his weight to 95 kg. Generally, because chocolate is high in calories, it is considered the enemy of weight loss. So how exactly is chocolate related to dieting?

The answer lies inthe leptin component found in chocolate.Leptin plays a role in reducing appetite; according to research results from a medical school in Japan, using women in their twenties as subjects and having them consume 50g of dark chocolate containing 70% cocoa butter daily for4 weeks, three out of every four women experienced weight loss.

If youeat chocolate before meals, your appetite will decrease due to a rise in blood sugar levels.The principle is similar to how suddenly eating sweets triggers a reflex in the stomach, causing it to stop churning.

In addition, if we start eating dessert after only eating until we're about 80% full, it will also immediately affect blood sugar levels, and the brain will send a “I’m full” signal, thus preventing overeating and achieving weight loss.

When using the chocolate diet method, one important thing to note is that you must choose dark chocolate, and if possible,opt for dark chocolate with a cocoa butter content of over 50%—it’s best to avoid milk chocolate, sweet chocolate, which contain additives like milk or sugar, or white chocolate, which hardly contains any cocoa butter.

Chocolate also has the function of slowing down aging.The cause of aging is free radicals, known as reactive oxygen species, which attack cells and can lead to cancer or inflammation. Cocoa butter contains antioxidants such as catechins, tannins, and theobromine, which can eliminate free radicals and have a protective effect on the body; hence, there is a claim that chocolate with high cocoa butter content can effectively prevent aging and cancer.

According to a paper published by scientists from Australia and the Netherlands in the British Medical Journal,eating 100g of chocolate a day can reduce the risk of adult-onset diseases by 78%, and it can also extend male lifespan by 6 years and female lifespan by 4.8 years.All of this is thanks tothe polyphenols richly contained in cocoa, the main ingredient of chocolate.

Polyphenols found in alcohol and fruits can also inhibit free radicals that cause aging and carcinogenesis, prevent the appearance of aging phenomena such as age spots or wrinkles; in addition, they can suppress platelet aggregation that causes vascular blockage leading to cardiac arrest, preventing arteriosclerosis and heart disease.

Reports indicate that polyphenols in cocoa help with blood flow to key areas of the brain, have a considerable therapeutic effect on Alzheimer's, strokes, and vascular diseases, regulate the synthesis of nitric oxide in blood vessels, and thereby effectively control high blood pressure.

In addition,cocoa butter contains 35% oleic acid,which is an unsaturated fatty acid that can effectivelylower blood cholesterol, prevent arteriosclerosis, and alleviate vascular inflammation.。

Reasons why you shouldn’t feed chocolate to petsThe theobromine contained in chocolate is toxic to dogs, cats, or parrots.If you feed them chocolate, the theobromine cannot be broken down in their bodies, and it remains in their system for over 20 hours,can cause pets to suffer from epilepsy, cardiac arrest, internal bleedingand other conditions, and may even lead to their death.