Let me just start off by confessing that I never met a chocolate that didn’t call my name.
In fact, I believe chocolate should be included in the basic food groups of our illustrious food pyramid. Full of antioxidents, a little bit of chocolate can go a long way in soothing the road-weary soul at the end of a long day. And, I believe that eating pure chocolate, as opposed to chocolate in cookies or other baked goods, will not hinder any weight-loss goals. Seriously.
A good chocolate syrup can provide a satisfying chocolaty experience, provided it’s not loading you up with high fructose corn syrup or trans-fats. Pouring it over small chunks of fruit is like bringing a chocolate fountain into your house — fun to eat and delightfully delicious. If I had a light dinner that night, I might even consider layering bananas and chocolate syrup with no-sugar-added almond butter. This is one of my favorite desserts!
Here’s the problem with common brands of chocolate syrup: they cheap-out and use high fructose corn syrup instead of real sugar. As I’m sure you already know, high fructose corn syrup is a highly processed, highly concentrated byproduct of our corn industry. It is incredibly cheap (mostly due to our farm subsidy policies which are causing us to have too much corn) and unbelievably widespread
Start reading labels and prepare to be shocked at how frequently you see high fructose corn syrup appear. It’s in soda pop, flavored waters, Wheat Thins (why, General Mills? why would you ruin a perfectly healthy baked whole grain cracker with high fructose corn syrup? it breaks my heart), breakfast cereals, GoGurt and other yogurts, cereal bars… the list goes on and on.
Highly processed, synthetic and artificial sweeteners fool the body into releasing hormones to process the “food” which then send out other substances that turn calories into fat for storage. Yep, that’s storage on your rear or around your middle compliments of the processed food industries.
My advice: if it has high fructose corn syrup on the label, find a different brand or skip it altogether.
The best, high-fructose-corn-syrup-free chocolate syrup I’ve found is called Ah!Alaska I find it at the natural grocery store.
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