Eating Chocolate on a Healing Diet
Tara Carpenter, NC.
Nutrition Consultant specialized in supporting people of all ages with therapeutic nutrition to heal digestive related health issues.
As a Holistic Nutritionist for people with health issues, dietary restrictions, and/or on Body Ecology Diet (BED) this question about whether chocolate is acceptable when on a Healing Diet is one of the most common questions I get …. mostly by women starting a therapeutic way of eating. Most people, women or men, don’t want to quit chocolate no matter how big a health problem they have.
As a chocolate lover myself here’s my answer: once you remove ‘diet biggies’ like gluten, yeast, pasteurized dairy, and refined sugar, start food combining, and apply the 80/20 rule you might find your health issues naturally transform themselves in a better direction. Oftentimes, these things alone are enough to turn around a health issue because each of these can reduce the trigger load on your immune and digestive system.
Once your health issue(s) stabilize you might find that eating a small piece of chocolate sweetened with a sugar that doesn’t feed yeast, bacteria, or viruses living in the body (i.e. stevia or BE Sweet Powder) to be fine. That said, if you are someone with a chronic health issue and feel debilitated in your body, you might want to stay on a healing diet protocol, like stage 1 of B.E.D., for 3+ months and avoid chocolate.
My Story
I used a gut healing protocol to heal a chronic case of yeast overgrowth back in 2010. Up until then, I was in a bad place, always sick and uncomfortable. I was open to doing anything that would make me feel better; including not eating chocolate. I quit cold turkey for 3 years. Hard to believe, even to me, but it felt right at the time.
One of my mantras is “mind over matter becomes habit”, a habit you drop into as easily as you once grabbed for your chocolate stash. I promise you. I see this all the time. I remember going to a party and smelling chocolate cake, my body barely reacted, didn’t even salivate. I knew on a gut level I wasn’t physically ready to eat it yet. Once I felt better, you know that I created a raw chocolate recipe!
Coffee Sensitivity
Like coffee, chocolate contains caffeine worth mentioning, not much but some. Many people with compromised immunity and digestion have trouble breaking down/metabolizing the constituents in caffeine. This is the person who says “I have a caffeine sensitivity”. A person becomes sensitive to caffeine when the caffeine itself is not broken down properly by your gut and ends up stimulating the adrenals; eventually burning-out (aka adrenal fatigue).
Note: 1 tablespoon cocoa powder = 12mg caffeine // 1 cup green tea = 35 mg.
Gluten
Gluten intolerance is another thing. People with gluten intolerance or celiac disease will often react negatively to chocolate. A reason for this is a reaction caused by cross-reactivity, because chocolate contains a protein that is a similar structure to the gluten protein. In this case, your immune system can mistake chocolate for gluten.
Oxalates
Oxalates are naturally produced chemicals in most plant foods (i.e. cacao, spinach, broccoli, almonds). Oxalates are usually excreted from body via urine, but if you have oxalate sensitivity, then the oxalates can accumulate in your body; forming sharp crystals that result in joint pain, kidney stones, and brain issues.
Strengthening the gut with a probiotic (supplement or food) is one way to reduce oxalate build-up. Another is to reduce the amount of oxalate-rich foods you eat. Count oxalates, not calories 🙂
Orange Chocolate Torte
Healthy Chocolate Mousse
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May all bellies be happy!
