Thyroid Newsroom From Mary Shomon Your Thyroid Guide Can Chocolate Help Carbo-Lovers Lose Weight?
November, 2001
Breaking the Carbo Habit
Most of us are trying to lose weight through appetite control and self-discipline. Sadly, for many carbohydrate and chocolate cravings are more powerful than we can handle. The craving for refined carbohydrates in chocolates, other candies, and sugar-laden foods is often purely psychological. When your mood changes and you start to feel anxious or depressed, your body craves carbohydrates. That's because carbohydrates raise your body's levels of feel-good brain chemicals, such as phenylethylamine and serotonin. When those levels go down again, the cycle must be repeated, leading to overeating syndrome.
Fat-free Feel-good Chemicals
One of the most intriguing new diet aids is a highly concentrated chocolate extract. It provides a "chocolate high," but without the fat or calories. Chocolate extract is rich in phenylethylamine (PEA). Research has linked low levels of PEA to depression, while increased levels of PEA have been linked to the feeling of being in love. Chocolate is also rich in fatty acids that stimulate receptors in the brain that can cause euphoria and heightened sensory sensitivity.
Another important feel-good dietary aid is 5-HTP, a naturally occurring variation of tryptophan that generates production of serotonin.
DHEA, a prohormone, the herb Coleus forskholl and chromium, an essential mineral, helps turn fat to muscle by affecting sugar metabolism and inhibiting fat deposit. Supplemental fibers such as glucomannan and chitosan are believed to "trap" dietary fat and transport it from the body before it can accumulate on hips or thighs.
These are only some of the dietary aids that, when used as part of a total weight-loss program, can give you a special edge, quelling your carbohydrate cravings while helping to reshape your body.
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