Chocolate Treatment for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

[taniaaust1]

I personally dont find any improvement of anything benefit in chocolate or having cocoa.

I tend to drink 2 cups of cocoa a day and love my non sugar chocolate too. The one thing it does do when I pig out on a block of sugar free dark chocolate.. is I usually gain weight.

I have thou used chocolate as like a sex substitute in the past

 

[maddietod]

Is there any reason to choose dark chocolate over cocoa powder, other than the convenience of eating a square?

 

[laura]

Is there any reason to choose dark chocolate over cocoa powder, other than the convenience of eating a square?

If one were trying to use chocolate medicinally, cocoa powder might be better because it contains all the active ingredients that have been studied. And is pure, no added sugar, etc.

For me chocolate is something I enjoy and so to try to have the equivalent in cocoa powder every day, say a tsp of cocoa powder, would be downright depressing.... it takes all the fun out of it.

 

[laura]

It's not avocado so much as it is fat. If you eat too much fat at one sitting and you have active gallstones, it is likely to set off an attack of excruciatingly painful biliary colic as a gallstone starts wandering on its merry way. Avocadoes are immensely high in fat and don't keep well, and I'm the only one in the household who likes them, so it was simplest to just stop eating them. Especially since I was on a diet anyway. I took a few things off the list for the time being, such as the lovely vegetable tempura my local Japanese place makes (ooh, I can have that again too), and was generally frugal with high-fat foods such as nuts or tofu.

Goodness, that's a lot of cocoa powder! Duly noted.

Gallstones sound perfectly awful! Though I suppose moderating fat intake is probably good for all of us. Without such a clear and immediate painful result I think it's hard sometimes to do the right thing when it comes to food. Heart disease runs in my family so I know I should be cautious about fats. But avocado really is very yummy.

 

[Calathea]

A pair of avocadoes are now sitting temptingly in the fruit bowl! There will be experiments with cocoa powder soon. Meanwhile I fancy doing something tomatoey with the dear things.

I discovered a lovely chocolate drink recipe last night. Since I'm vegan and don't like real coffee, this is what I made:

1 tbsp coffee substitute (No Caf, although I reckon they're all the same)
1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tsp agave syrup (wonder what it would be like with malt syrup?)
about 20ml soya milk
fill up the rest of the mug with boiling water

Sort of mocha affair. Very tasty, and felt relatively satisfying for that sort of thing, as opposed to causing a head rush. Incidentally, for anyone who needs to worry about their fat intake, it's worth knowing that cocoa powder is actually relatively high in fat, so it's not just the added fats in chocolate which are an issue. Though you'd need to be eating an awful lot of it to be having any problems, and I say that as someone who's just spent the last eight months on a low-fat diet for medical reasons.

 

[tandrsc]

I just wanted to add my way of taking cocoa as I find it very helpful. In fact, if I don't take it I crash.

1 generous teaspoon of cocoa powder
1 generous teaspoon of honey
A pinch of ground ginger

Mix it all together well to make a paste and eat it off the spoon before each meal.

Plain chocolate gives me a migraine, but mixed with honey this way it's no trouble at all. I think it's yummy.