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Help for a Chocoholic please?

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Lisa W

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Type 2
I am a chocoholic.. there have been times when i could have easily had 5 or 6 bars a day (some days more.. i have a very sweet tooth!...no wonder I am in the mess I am in now) Anyhow, I am trying to regain control.. but I do find that if i go without I end up craving it more and more then give in... So I was wondering if any fellow chocoholics have any hints or tips on how to best deal with this... This is why any attempts at dieting in the past have failed :(
I can't go "cold turkey" so to speak and have read that these things labelled as "diabetic chocolate" are best avoided.. so any advice would be great. thank you.
 
You could try changing to higher Cocoa mass dark chocolate! Try the 70% first! You’ll be surprised by how quickly you acquire the taste for it! Then move on to higher as you get used to each higher percentage! Also, try having a few squares after a meal as that’ll have less impact on the blood sugars! I never liked dark chocolate & only ate milk chocolate but, have now worked my way up to 90% dark chocolate! It’s richer tasting & less satisfies more also, the higher percentages have less sugar!
 
Hi Lisa
I second Lanny’s suggestion. I too am a chocolate addict. I never liked dark chocolate but now I love it and look forward to one or two squares as a treat. I’m surprised how quickly my tastebuds have changed since diagnosis and change in my diet.
 
I third Lanny!

I was never a huge chocoholic but I like some now & then. 85% dark choc took a small amount of getting used to but now it tastes quite sweet to me, I guess probably as a result of getting my BG down.
 
Like a smoker. You give up completely. As an ex smoker I couldn’t have a couple of cigs here and there. The only solution is total abstinence. Like vaping I used it to help give up smoking worked a treat. My ex missus has been vaping for 8 years now. So if the government banned it tomorrow she would be back on the ciggies. If you call yourself a chocoholic likened to alcoholic an alcoholic dosn’t have a couple of drinks. Just pack it in completely.
 
Most likely there is a component in the addiction which is down to the sugar content - have a look at the total carbs in the chocolate you have been eating.
I do have chocolate, but I buy the dark sort, over 80 percent cocoa and more if I can find it, there are some chocolates with artificial sweeteners.
If you can lower the overall sweetness level of your daily diet then it can help to change how you perceive sugar.
 
Hi Lisa, how are you getting on? Did you try dark chocolate as an alternative?
There are some more tips here about eating chocolate - like having low-calorie drinking chocolate, putting it in the fridge so it takes longer to eat, or deciding how much to eat and putting the rest away.
https://www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-diabetes/enjoy-food/eating-with-diabetes/chocolate-and-diabetes

There's also quite a few chocolate-based recipes in this forum that you could browse: https://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/forums/recipes.21/

Hope the tips are helping 🙂
 
I have been dealing with sick kiddos for the past few days so haven't had much time to try anything different.. though i haven't really eaten much in the way of chocolate anyhow.. i had got a small milky way to try and kerb the craving for it.. but am keen to try the dark stuff once I get chance to go buy some 🙂 thanks all for the advice..
 
One thing I've found helpful is nestle wowsome bars. They've 30% less sugar, with no added artificial sweeteners or GM and about 6g of sugar per bar which are about the size of a standard milky bar but less sugar. They come in both white and milk chocolate and you can buy a bag of small bars which are 2g each.

It's not ideal obviously I don't have them everyday but I've found them really helpful.

Another thing I discovered are Atkins chocolate bars, though they can have artificial sweeteners in which I find bad for my blood sugar, so the so called sugar free chocolate out there is actually worse for mine than actual chocolate.

I've never been able to get on with the theory of just a couple of squares of dark, I eat the lot! I can't manage milky ways either as I find that adds to my craving.
 
I finally got to buying some 70% stuff.. I forgot i already quite liked that so I agree with Becca.. having just one or two squares is hard!.. however i am managing.. had the bar a few days and it's still half full. Thanks everyone for suggestions. I have had this incredibly sweet tooth since i was very young.. and have had some issues with my comfort eating so to give up entirely would send me back down a bad slope which is why I need to incorporate something in the balanced diet 🙂
 
Lisa W said:
I finally got to buying some 70% stuff.. I forgot i already quite liked that so I agree with Becca.. having just one or two squares is hard!.. however i am managing.. had the bar a few days and it's still half full. Thanks everyone for suggestions. I have had this incredibly sweet tooth since i was very young.. and have had some issues with my comfort eating so to give up entirely would send me back down a bad slope which is why I need to incorporate something in the balanced diet 🙂
Click to expand...
I find when I crave something it is better to have what I crave, as I tend to overeat on other stuff.
 
@Lisa W glad you were able to start changing habits!

Agree with @Lanny & @Loulou23 , I was so surprised to see my taste adapting...not only on the chocolate side but all sweets.
I had two experiences:
First one when diagnosed the diabetes in 2012, I started by making smaller portions, giving the sweets for my daughter to hide so if I wanted some, I would have to ask her and so not eat more than once a day, and it worked.
Now in July I was told I was half way down to Kidney Failure (as I had completely abandoned the healthy eating) so this time I completely cleaned up our house of any kind of processed sweets, no chocolate, no nutella or jams, even gave up potatoes (which are one love of ours!!!) and hardly ate any bread (we already only ate wholemeal) no rice, no pasta, no white flours or anything made with them... and it worked. I had blood tests after a month and I was able to lower my blood results considerably, sugar, cholesterol, lipids and triglycerides.... so in this case I have to agree with @Hepato-pancreato (hey, I also just bought a vape pen starter kit!!!) as with the smoking I most definitely couldn't make it with just smoking a few a day....
It was easy in the past, the minute I knew I was pregnant I gave up smoking and drinking and didn't do either for the first 2 and half/three years after.... then life turned extremely difficult and went back to smoking....

There are lots of blogs around that give you low carbs and sugar free recipes for treats that include chocolate too... I find that there is an abundance of North American (USA) people on google search and also not much on the cheap side, as many of them use Almond or Coconut flour or some type of ingredients which are more expensive but it worked for me on keeping me away from buying sweets and chocolate bars. I'm not eating any chocolate yet (had a brief break last week as it was my birthday!) but when I find any good recipes with chocolate, I ll give you links 🙂
 
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