Dark Chocolate Lessens Cravings for Sweet, Salty and Fatty Foods

There’s a reason for dark chocolate’s honorable reputation. Dark chocolate, for one, can significantly reduce the inflammation that leads to cardiovascular disease. Now a new study has found that dark chocolate can lessen cravings for sweet, salty and fatty foods.

Scientists at the University of Copenhagen’s Faculty of Life Sciences (LIFE) also found that dark chocolate is far more filling than milk chocolate.

The study, which compared the effects of dark and milk chocolate on appetite and calorie intake, involved 16 young and healthy men of normal weight who liked both dark and milk chocolate.

After fasting for 12 hours, participants were offered 100g of dark chocolate in one session, and 100g of milk chocolate in another.

Two-and-a-half hours later, the men were offered pizza and were instructed to eat until they felt comfortably satiated. After the meal, their calorie intake was registered.

And the results were significant! The participants’ calorie intake was 15 percent lower when they had eaten dark chocolate compared to the milk chocolate.

The men also noted they craved less sweet, salty or fatty foods after eating the dark chocolate.

Check out A Square A Day Keeps the Doctor Away to find out how much dark chocolate you need to consume to reap its many benefits (it’s not as much as you think).

Why does this matter to you? Because dark chocolate not only provides us with healthy fatty acids and antioxidants, it can also help curb our cravings for sweet, salty and fattening foods.