Sugar-Free Dark Chocolate

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and before I share with you my Sexy Dark Chocolate recipe, I wanted to encourage you to LOVE yourself first, and foremost. Whether you have a partner, a date, or neither… All relationships you experience begin with yourself, as they are a mirror image of your biggest places of growth, such as becoming more compassionate, giving, understanding, creating boundaries, etc.

I recently had the opportunity to interview relationship counselors for a local magazine I write for. Here’s some tips:

When our partner or a friend is treating us a certain way… let’s say they are not being very understanding of our situation, then instead of first putting the blame on them, we can ask ourselves, “how can I be more understanding towards them?” Often this switch in psychology helps us realize the way we treat others impacts the way they treat us. And by first coming to a place of embodying that quality in our interactions, often our partner or friend will mirror it back to us.

Another tip is the amount of love our friends, family, and partner seem to give us, usually stems from the amount of love and appreciation we have for ourselves. When you love yourself and truly feel cared for, it is easier to let others love you and care for you. It’s an openness you feel, of not being vulnerable and shying away, and others can feel that and they are able to come closer into your world.

On that note, in the Spring of 2016, I married myself on the beach in Thailand. The previous summer I went through a big breakup, the end of a 6 ½ half year relationship I thought was leading into marriage. And in 2016, I decided I was going to commit to myself fully, and I did so by creating a beautiful ceremony on the beach along with my best friend, who also agreed to marry herself. It had been raining all day from the monsoon storms and I had been laying low and fasting on coconuts, while writing my vows: twenty two vows of real promises to myself. As sunset moved closer, the rained stopped and we had the ceremony. We dug a large spiral in the sand with our feet to stand upon and declare our vows while facing Mother Ocean as our witness.

Since then, I have learned so much about self-love, and what I realized is: I have my back. No matter what. When I’m stressed, sick, challenged, or joyful. And since I made that commitment, all other relationships in my life have improved. Including the relationship between my mind-body-spirit. I feel the way my hormones change each month and I listen to what my body-temple needs for nourishment, for movement, or for self-care.

Listening to your body and its needs is a part of Intuitive Eating. However, there are some blocks that make it difficult to listen to the real needs of your body. Sugar and caffeine are big ones. Sugar and caffeine both spike blood sugar, causing cravings even when you have already had enough calories. Caffeine is easier to avoid, yet sugar sneaks its way into so many packaged foods.

Ladies, have you ever felt symptoms of low blood sugar?

• Shakiness or irritability between meals (“hangry”)
• Sudden nervousness, irritability, or grouchiness
• Constant hunger (even if you just ate an hour ago)
• Sudden blurry vision
• Unexplained sudden fatigue or exhaustion
• Difficulty concentrating or thinking clearly
• Rapid heartbeat
• Constant cravings for sweets or simple carbohydrates like donuts

If you often undergo some of these symptoms, you may be experiencing hypoglycemia, when blood glucose levels fall too low because the pancreas overproduces the amount of insulin needed to get the glucose into the cells.

Hypoglycemia may come from skipping meals, over exercising without enough food, and a diet high in sugar. Consuming excess sugar may overtime cause the cells to become insulin resistant, meaning the cells become unreceptive to absorbing glucose that gives your muscles fuel. 

Sugar sneaks its way into so many common foods. Take salad dressing for example. There is 5 grams of sugar in 2 Tablespoons.

The American Heart Association recommends for women no more than 25 grams of added sugar daily or 6 teaspoons. That is the maximum of our consumption.

Here is what a typical day of sugar consumption might look like for a woman (in grams):

Breakfast: 16 grams

• Granola: 10 grams in 1/2 cup
• Vanilla Yogurt: 6 grams in 1/2 cup

Lunch: 12 grams

    Sandwich:

• Honey Roasted Turkey: 4 grams in 4 ounces
• Whole Wheat Bread: 4 grams in 2 slices 
• Honey Mustard: 4 grams in 2 teaspoons

Snack: 18 grams

• Energy Bar: 18 grams

Dinner: 9 grams

     Salad and Soup:

• Salad Dressing: 5 grams in 2 tablespoons
• Cup of Canned Vegetable Coup: 4 grams

Total Daily Added Sugar: 55 grams

Wow, ok now we can start to see how it all adds up. And this might not be including the 40 grams of sugar you had in your afternoon soda.

Regular Excess Sugar leads to:

• Systemic Inflammation
• Candida
• Brain Fog
• Digestive Issues
• Acne
• Hormonal Imbalance
• Food Cravings
• Added Stress
• Insulin Resistance
• Type 2 Diabetes

So How Can We Reduce Sugar in Our Diet?

Awareness is the first step to being more mindful about sugar intake. Pick a day and add up your daily sugar intake. Once you see the food choices with the most sugar, you can then find delicious substitutes.

Instead of soda, grab a Kombucha or herbal tea with stevia. Instead of an energy bar, eat an apple dipped in almond butter. Try using erythritol or monkfruit, sugar-free natural sweeteners, instead of cane sugar. Erythritol is an alcohol based sugar that is getting praised from the Ketogenic diet community and it is found in foods like grapes and melons. It is better absorbed than other sugar alcohols, like xylitol, which in larger quantities can potentially cause diarrhea and stomach cramping. I still feel skeptical about large uses of this sugar-free sweetener, yet I enjoy adding small amounts into my chai tea or chocolate to sweeten it.

Natural Sugar V.S. Refined Sugar

Whether you use natural sugars or refined sugars, all sugar breaks down into glucose. Sugar IS Sugar. However, the refined sugar provides empty calories, while natural sugars from maple syrup or honey provide minerals, B-vitamins, and even anti-bacterial properties. If you’re going to eat sugar, eat the kind that comes with additional nutrients.

For me and sweets, I am a BIG chocolate lover. I gravitate towards dark chocolate, as it has less amounts of sugar than milk chocolate. That’s why I am sharing with you my delicious low sugar chocolate recipe just in time for Valentine’s Day. It’s super easy to make, as all you need to do is melt coconut oil over low heat, stir in the ingredients, and then freeze into a silicon mold or glass tupperware.

I make my Sexy Dark Chocolate with stevia and natural sugars like honey and date sugar. Two teaspoons of honey have about 11 grams of sugar, which is spread out through the entire chocolate bar. I have also experimented with using erythritol in this chocolate as the sweetener and I enjoy it.

Honey creates the best flavor in my opinion, as the date sugar and erythritol can add a bit of a crunchy texture if they are not all-the-way ground into a powder. One tablespoon of date sugar has six grams of sugar and erythritol is sugar-free.

I will let you be the judge. Please comment below and let me know what type of sweetener you liked best. I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts and answer any questions!

Moon Blessings & Hormone Health,

Allie Marie

Sources:

Erythritol: An Interpretive Summary of Biochemical, Metabolic, Toxicological, and Clinical Data. Food Chem Toxicol 1999 Jun;37(6):I-II. PMID:9862657. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9862657

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3982014/

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/HealthyLiving/HealthyEating/Nutrition/Added-Sugars_UCM_305858_Article.jsp#.WJ4R6rYrInN