Chocolate Excellence! July 2009

They DO make it! Lindt makes 99% cocoa bars! Just a day after I posted my last blog about Lindt’s 90 percent chocolate, it was called to my attention that there exists a 99% version. My daughter-in-law stumbled across it at a Lindt store while visiting a mall and bought me some. It was surprising enough to us that there are whole stores devoted to Lindt, let alone that they sell such strong stuff! But they do! The “Excellence” bar! And it is pretty good! Once you get used to it, that is.

I wasn’t able to try this delicacy until late last week, and I’ve given it a number of days to make sure I can give an accurate description of my taste-testing. The gold-foil wrapper inside even contains “important tasting advice”:

“Excellence 99% is a unique chocolate that reveals all the strength and richness of cocoa beans,” it says. “To fully appreciate all its flavours, we recommend that you progressively develop your palate through our range of high cocoa content chocolate bars, starting with Excellence 70%, then 85%, and finally 99%. The best way to experience EXCELLENCE 99% Cocoa is to break off a small piece and allow it to melt slowly in your mouth. To taste the full bouquet of cocoa aromas, try accompanying your tasting with some coffee.”

Well, I’m not going to consume COFFEE with my chocolate; first, this chemical is against my religion, and second, I hate the taste of it and it is bad for you. But I have no problem eating chocolate plain. I must admit, though, that at first I thought the 99% stuff was kinda yukky. But the next day I ate a bit and it tasted a little better. And the next day I had it again and it tasted even better, and strangely, ten minutes later I wanted more!

And as far as progressively developing my palate by starting with 70% and so on—those numbers are for wimps. After eating cocao nibs—the raw, unsweetened chocolate—90% bars are like heaven. They taste so sweet! But if you don’t like dark chocolate, especially the 90% variety, you’ll despise 99% bars. Even my son and daughter-in-law think 99% is too strong and don’t want any more. My younger son said it tastes “weird”. Mr. Bin refuses to even try it. Oh well, more for me! Trouble is you can’t buy these on regular shopping trips but only at Lindt stores, which is inconvenient for me. Or you can order it online, but you have to pay shipping. I’m still working out what to do as far as garnering at least a year’s supply. Oh yes, here are the ingredients: chocolate, cocoa powder, cocoa butter, sugar. If you think 90% bars don’t have enough sugar, you can imagine how little there is in the Excellence chocolate!

So the bottom line, in my opinion, is: Lindt 99% chocolate is good, but you have to give it some time for your palate to adjust. Also, this strong stuff is much healthier than regular chocolate because there is a lot less sugar, so it’s worth it. And it melts in your mouth like a real chocolate bar, unlike those hard cacao nibs you have to chew and which get stuck in your teeth.

Soooo, try these 99% bars if you like. I dare you!

For more information about Lindt 99% bars, visit their website at www.Lindtusa.com

Supreme Chocolate! July 2009

They finally did it! They made a 90% cocoa chocolate bar! Lindt did, that is. Before this, their highest percentage was 86%. That’s what I was eating every day but decided to stop because I was porking out too much (either from the sugar or middle-age, or both). For months I have been eating the hard stuff—raw, organic chocolate cocao nibs—and not really enjoying them. But at least they have NO sugar, and they’re full of antioxidants (see blog entry, “The Ultimate Chocolate Fix”, from February).

But now I am splurging and eating a little of these new bars each day. They are soooo good! You can really taste a difference between this and the old 86% chocolate. A little goes a long way. Remember, the darker the better, meaning the higher the percentage of cocoa, the less sugar there is—and we all know that sugar raises your insulin level, causing fat to be stored. I’ll try to ration out my servings and eat only a couple of squares a day. And if I pork out again, it’s back to the nibs. Actually, I wish someone would make a 95% bar! Or a 98% bar! It’s gotta be better than the raw chocolate.

The picture above shows one of these new bars, called “Supreme Dark.” Just look at it—isn’t it lovely? Simply breathtaking. Sigh. *dabbing eyes* Ninety-percent cocoa. Yummmm. So what’s the other 10%, you ask? Okay, here are the ingredients: Chocolate, cocoa powder, cocoa butter, sugar, vanilla. That’s it. Chocolate bliss. Mmmmmm. 

These new Lindt bars can be hard to find, at least where I live. My daughter-in-law told me about them, and I had to search high and low, finally spotting them at a Wal-Mart about 10 miles away. Anyway, try to check out these bars. If you hate dark chocolate you won’t like this at all. But I think it is HEAVENLY!

THE ULTIMATE CHOCOLATE FIX Feb. 2009

I admit it: I’m a chocoholic. I absolutely love the stuff, and eat it every day. Smooth and dark, chocolate melts in your mouth and tastes absolutely divine. There’s no other food as good—at least in my opinion.

Except that now I’m eating the “hard stuff”—raw chocolate, with absolutely NO sugar. And it doesn’t exactly melt in my mouth—not like the dark chocolate candy bars I savored in the past. In fact, when I first tasted it, I wouldn’t have even known it was chocolate.

Why the switch, you ask? The answer is for health reasons. And vanity, I guess.

I used to think I was doing so well eating only a small amount of dark chocolate each day. Before I started eating the lowcarb or “controlled-carb” Somersize way beginning in 2001, I was addicted to cookies and other sweets, so eliminating high-sugar and refined carbs from my diet for the past eight years has been a major feat. And I had great success, too—losing most of what I wanted (50 pounds) within the first six months. From what I learned and experienced, fat doesn’t make you fat, it is sugar, which raises your insulin level causing fat to be stored. I ate all the fat I wanted, and the pounds melted away.

After reaching my goal weight, I began to indulge in my favorite treat, secure in knowing that dark chocolate has less sugar than milk chocolate and of course no white flour. I always liked dark chocolate better, anyway. Compared to how I used to eat, I thought this small amount, about two ounces, wouldn’t make a difference in my weight. And it didn’t, for several years.

But then I got into my 50s and my figure went to pot. I can still wear the same tops, but I can’t even get into the zip-up jeans I wore in my 2001 after photo (and I had lost about ten more pounds after that was taken! I also wore those jeans years ago when I used to eat cookies, ice cream, Pop-Tarts and white bread every day!). I also can’t get the skirt buttoned that I wore in 2005 (in the infamous sitting-on-the-floor picture). That was upsetting enough, but then last summer I was all dressed up in some formal group photos and was appalled when I saw them. I looked like a lumpy, dumpy tub! Even my family was stunned. They assured me I don’t look that bad in person, but the camera can’t lie that much. The only saving grace was that I didn’t have a double chin.

By this time I had graduated from 72% to 86% chocolate, too! The higher the percentage of cocoa, the less sugar, so I thought I was doing even better. I wished I could find something even higher, like 95%. But other than baking chocolate I didn’t have any luck. So last fall I resigned myself to trying to cut back, going down to only one ounce or less of the 86% bars. I craved this food every day like clockwork. I couldn’t concentrate until I had it. But it was so frustrating, thinking that even a small amount could be making me balloon up, when I used to stuff my face with cake, chocolate shakes, plates full of Minute Rice, etc. in order to gain weight. Of course, I couldn’t be sure that only the chocolate was to blame; just getting older can cause middle-age spread. But cutting out even more sugar sure couldn’t hurt.

Just as I was trying to get used to an even tinier amount of my treat each day, and feeling very deprived while doing so, my younger son, a health nut, told me about a company called Natural Zing that sells raw chocolate, or organic cacao. Described as “super food of the goddesses”, the raw cacao bean is packed with antioxidants and contains a wide array of unique properties and minerals, including high levels of sulfur and magnesium, which may increase your focus, alertness, and happiness, the company says.  I thought Wow! This is what I have been looking for! Satisfying my chocolate fix in a totally healthy way, with no sugar whatsoever! I ordered a bag right away, deciding to try the cacao “nibs” or peeled, crushed beans.

It was late November that I tried my first serving, about a teaspoon full. It didn’t taste much like anything to me. The little beans were hard and totally not sweet, and I definitely did not feel any kind of endomorphins or bliss or ecstasy, even though the bag clearly cautioned about such feelings.  “Warning!” it said. “Eating cacao may cause you to have an incredible day!” But I was determined to stick it out.

Since then I have been eating about a tablespoon of these nibs a day, forgoing my beloved dark chocolate bars completely. I never experienced the shakes or any kind of withdrawal symptoms. But my feelings are still mixed about this product. On the one hand I feel this must be much healthier, but on the other hand I miss my candy bars! Even though they were dark, dark chocolate, that extra sugar makes a huge difference in the taste and texture. And since I don’t feel any differently after consuming the nibs, now I’m even thinking that maybe rather than chocolate bliss, what I really craved was a sugar rush! But chocolate is just SO GOOD.  And there are studies which show that some people crave it every day because they have certain colonies of bacteria living in their digestive system which causes this desire. So maybe it’s not my fault—it’s my bacteria!

Has switching to raw chocolate helped my figure at all? I don’t know…I don’t know…I don’t know. Maybe a little, but probably not. But I can’t be sure. It depends on the time of day, the time of month, which way the wind is blowing. I haven’t weighed or measured myself for years—I don’t want to make myself crazy if I go up in pounds or inches. All I know is how my clothes fit and how I feel (and how pictures turn out). I’m still too chicken to even try my old jeans or skirt again. But I can’t see going back to my chocolate bars. Even the 86% would probably taste too sweet to me now, after being away from them.  But they were so good! I really, really enjoyed them, and I don’t get that feeling with the nibs. Maybe I just need to stay on them longer to become more accustomed to their unique flavor, who knows.   

And I know there are chocolate bars with various types of sweeteners that aren’t supposed to cause weight gain or raise your insulin level, but I hate to use them because I don’t like anything artificial, no matter how “natural” they say it is. I stick with plain old sugar or honey, and that’s it. Save for a few very small lowcarb brownies sweetened with a small amount of honey (see recipe below), I haven’t had any sweetie goodness at all.

Still, it is so depressing to think that just a few years ago I had been like the Incredible Shrinking Woman while eating like a queen on Somersize. For eight years I have faithfully stuck to this program, only adding a few healthy “level 2” items to my diet, such as bananas (a high-glycemic fruit) and sugar-free peanut butter. But I haven’t had ANY white, refined flour—not so much as a crouton! I eat my hamburgers and hotdogs without a bun, I eat only PLAIN, whole-grain oatmeal for breakfast and the rest of the day is protein/fat/vegetables, mostly organic. I wouldn’t think of putting a Tootsie Roll, Circus Peanut, jelly bean or even a single M&M in my mouth, what with that candy shell; and as far as Twinkies, Ho-Hos, wedding cake, birthday cake, cupcakes, donuts, cookies or even a Starlite Mint, forget it! I couldn’t eat any healthier! And I work out regularly! All this effort, just so maybe, just maybe I can look a little less dumpy?? I’d hate to see what happened if I stopped! But if I had never started Somersize, I might have diabetes or be dead by now, or possibly have exploded like Mr. Creosote in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life. But other women my age and older still stay thin! Take Vanna White, for instance. We are the same age and I look nothing like her! Does she never eat??? She admits to having a terrible sweet tooth, so she must eat something! Maybe I’ll end up like my mother, who in her 70’s, even though she ate, withered away to about 65 pounds as she spent her last years in a nursing home with Alzheimer’s. Then my weight problems will be over.

In any case, if you too would like to experience “the ultimate chocolate fix”, you might want to give raw chocolate a try. Even if you don’t care to lose weight or cut back on sugar, I think it is worth it just for the antioxidants, flavonoids, and other nutrients. You can buy whole beans, nibs, cocoa butter, cocoa powder (use in brownies), or “chocolate rocks” (nibs low temperature melted into solid pieces). The company says you can use a sweetener like agave nectar which they also sell, to make delicious chocolate treats. (I haven’t used it, though.)

Well, I’m going to go feed my special bacterial colonies now. Hopefully they and I will have an incredible day, and I’m wishing you one, too.

For more information about raw, organic cacao beans and other products, visit www.naturalzing.com.

FRUCTOSE-FREE WEEKEND WISHES 2007

I was at a grocery store yesterday looking for another brand of cereal to have on hand (see entry below, “Cereal Box Blues”) and came across Kellogg’s Smart Start Healthy Heart cereal. There were several different flavors, such as cinnamon raisin, original, etc. I read the list of ingredients and was appalled to see high fructose corn syrup in every single one of them. And they ALL had way too much sugar in general. I mean, the cinnamon raisin cereal lists sugar as the second ingredient, with high fructose corn syrup as fourth! I couldn’t believe it. High fructose corn syrup is just sooo bad for you.

 

I finally settled on Total Cranberry Crunch from General Mills. Not for me, but for my older son, the fruity flakey lover (or should I say the flakey fruity lover?). The box raves about how this cereal is an excellent source of whole grain, which all these cereals do. Whole grain is good, but sugar is listed second! It also contains corn syrup, brown sugar, and brown sugar syrup. But at least it does not contain high fructose corn syrup. It also brags that it’s low in fat and how “low-fat diets” are good, which I take issue with because what I have learned from being on a controlled-carb plan is that low-fat diets can be dangerous. Fat is good for you as long as it is real fat, not transfat. I have not been to the health food store recently but plan to check their packaged cereals. I still say plain, cooked oatmeal is the way to go. Oh, and then the checker hands me my receipt, along with a coupon for Post Selects cereal, including Blueberry Morning. Ack! I gave him an astonished look and said, “What, you didn’t read my blog???” (Not really.)

 

When I got home, I visited the Kellogg’s website where they tout their “nutritious breakfast foods”. They also say that this Smart Start Healthy Heart cereal and bars are certified by the American Heart Association! How can this organization endorse a cereal with all that sugar, including high fructose corn syrup??? No wonder people have such poor health in this country, with obesity and diabetes rampant. The website also gave a link to their SmartStart.com site with advice from a doctor who is director of the Heart Center for Women at Rush University Medical Center. How can she endorse this cereal? I would never eat that stuff!

 

So then I had to send emails to all these people connected to Kellogg’s, and I still have a couple of snail mail letters to send out, enclosing my blog entry about Cereal Box Blues along with my Somersize weight loss story. I could send them all kinds of other stuff, too, because I’m sure they think alcohol is fine in moderation, and endorse the Mediterranean Diet which includes WINE, but I won’t because of postage costs. I will be contacting General Mills as well, but will not be quite so upset at them because of their lack of high fructose corn syrup. Oh no, I just realized it might be included in some of their other cereal, which I did not check yet! Sigh…my work is never done. If only more people would read my blog, it would make my life a whole lot easier! But since I only have two readers, just the three of us know what is right.

 

In any case, I hope you have a good weekend. Eat well. Get plenty of rest. Exercise. Brush and floss. Drink lots of water. And whatever you do, please, for the love of all things holy, stay away from high fructose corn syrup!    ~Me

CEREAL BOX BLUES 2007

So I’m standing in the kitchen Sunday morning minding my own business, waiting for my oatmeal to finish cooking, when I notice an empty cereal box on the counter. It formerly held “Blueberry Morning” by Post Selects, which I had bought to have on hand for my sons. I never noticed the back of the box; I guess I just grabbed this brand because my older son told me he prefers “flaky cereal with fruit” and the cover photo looked like it matched that description. But now the back panel was facing me, and I saw that it advertised a “Bed and Breakfast Getaway with Sara Moulton!” I never heard of her, but the caption said she is a celebrity chef. She is shown wearing an apron and a big smile on her face, stirring something in a bowl. I continued to read, and saw that ten grand prize winners and their companion will get to stay at an upscale bread and breakfast, meet Sara and participate in a cooking demonstration, and attend a WINE PAIRING CLASS and cheese tasting. Aaarggghhh! Why did they have to ruin it all by having a WINE PAIRING CLASS??? I can’t even read a cereal box without having alcohol shoved in my face!

 

They obviously think wine is all elegant and glamorous, and that it is sophisticated to learn the right wine to pair with food. After all, it is sooo important to impress guests with your knowledge of booze at fancy dinner parties. Well there IS no “right wine!” It’s ALL WRONG! Alcohol is a toxic chemical that affects every hormone, poisons cells, has been linked to cancer, birth defects, heart, brain and liver damage and other bad things. What’s more, it is a mind-altering drug! A highly-addictive psychoactive drug! That alone makes it wrong! And they even have a PICTURE of wine on the box! Seriously! There is an illustration of a fancy bed and breakfast, superimposed with a bottle of wine, two wine glasses with booze in them, and a bunch of grapes. That is just terrible! No wonder so many people drink! As I’ve said before, we can hardly chastise our youth for underage drinking, when grown adults make alcohol look so fun, glamorous, romantic, sophisticated and acceptable. Adults should know better.

 

A wine pairing class. Oh brother. Why don’t they have a pot pairing class while they’re at it? As I’ve said before, when I used to chastise pot-smokers online, they would say all accusingly, “Yeah, but I bet you still drink your wine,” eager to prove me a hypocrite. They thought I was like “everybody else”, where I would “savor fine wine.” But I had to stress that of course I did not drink wine or any other mind-altering drug. I have no desire to, and I also know that just because alcohol is legal doesn’t make it right. And I bet Sara Moulton and any others involved in this wine pairing class would never smoke pot. Heavens no. “Drugs are bad” and everybody teaches their kids to never use them, right? Yet these grown adults think nothing of consuming a mind-altering drug in the form of alcohol. And they’ll probably use the excuse, “Jesus drank wine.” Like anybody drinks wine or other booze to be more like Jesus. Yeah, right.

 

When my dad passed away, I was cleaning out his house and found all this wine he and my mom used to drink before their health deteriorated. I threw it out! No way was I going to drink that stuff, and I don’t hate anybody enough to give them a toxic, highly-addictive mind-altering drug. So down the drain it all went. Cases of it, gone forever. And here this cereal company is TEACHING people to drink booze, making it sound all elegant. And then I spend hours writing to wineries to try and talk some sense into them and get them to realize how unhealthy and unwholesome alcohol is, and companies like this just help keep these wineries in business!

 

And THEN, I’m reading the list of ingredients in this Blueberry Morning stuff, and just about croaked. The second ingredient is SUGAR!!! First rice, then the sugar, then blueberries, and then HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP!! High fructose corn syrup is the worst form of sugar there is! Do an Internet search for this substance and you’ll find out for yourself! The list continues on with some whole grains (that’s good), and then MORE sugar (brown sugar), and later corn syrup.

 

At the bottom, in very small print, it says this cereal counts as 3 starch “dietary exchanges” based on guidelines by the American Diabetes Association and the American Dietetic Association. I can’t believe these organizations would approve of ANYBODY eating this cereal, let alone those with diabetes symptoms! This is terrible for you! If you don’t already have diabetes, this cereal could very well cause or contribute to it. Post, a division of Kraft Foods, touts that it is “dedicated to providing you and your family with quality nutritious products”, and the box makes it sound like this product is so wholesome, calling it a “sensible solution” because it has whole grain, is low fat and has no trans fat. Whole grain is a start, but still, the sugar and high fructose corn syrup just negates it all!

 

And they make it sound like fat makes you fat, as if fat is bad for you. This goes against everything I have learned about weight loss and good nutrition from being on Somersize, the controlled carb program I have followed since 2001. It is not fat and calories that cause weight gain, it is sugar! I lost weight by eating as much fat as I wanted. But I cut out sugar and refined carbs, which raise your insulin level causing fat to be stored. If I ate this cereal, my insulin level would spike and my cravings would be out of control. Heck, it’s bad enough just eating plain, whole-grain oatmeal! I have a big bowl of that most mornings, and I’m starving 45 minutes later. After it digests and I switch to proteins, fats and veggies for the rest of the day (as per Somersize guidelines) I do much better, feeling satisfied and with no cravings. 

 

So that’s what I get for innocently reading a cereal box. Now I have to hunt down email addresses and snail mail addresses, and send letters to chastise all these people for promoting and glorifying alcohol and for manufacturing and approving an unhealthy product. Like I don’t have enough people to chastise already. I tell ya, it’s hard work saving the world. If only I got paid.

 

The box has been taken apart and flattened, all ready for the recycling bin (see photo above). I will never buy this cereal again. I don’t even want my skinny sons eating it. The only blueberry morning I will ever have is with the plain, fresh, organic fruit.

Yahoo Diet Tips Spark Ire 2007

They spark my ire, that is. I get so tired of Yahoo running articles on their front page from “Hungry-Girl”, which recommend what they think are healthy, “low-fat, low-calorie treats” for losing weight. Their latest entry includes a list of such things as fat-free whipped topping, rice cakes, and fat-free and reduced-fat salad dressings. This goes against everything I have learned about weight loss and good nutrition. These are all foods I ate when I was trying to lose weight during my 30s and early 40s, which only caused me to gain weight and make my cravings go out of control. Intense exercise did not help. It wasn’t until I began the controlled-carb program Somersize in 2001 that I saw results. I learned a whole new way of cooking and eating, which reprogrammed my metabolism and eliminated cravings. I threw out all my fat-free and reduced fat products, including those tasteless, refined carb rice cakes!

I have learned that fat doesn’t make you fat, sugar does! Fat free and reduced-fat products replace the good, healthy fat with sugar, starches and chemicals which can cause weight gain and cravings. I would never use any fake food like that ever again. I use real cream, and full-fat dressing or olive oil on my salads, which is nothing BUT fat, and hardly low in calories. I slather my vegetables in butter. I eat as much fat as I want, including sour cream, cream cheese, mayo, butter, olive oil. And I never count calories. That's because I know that fat and calories do not cause weight gain, but imbalanced hormones do. Somersize has taught me how to eat in order to keep my insulin level in check, because fat cannot be stored unless insulin is present. And what raises insulin? Sugar! And refined carbs. So I avoid sugar for the most part, and adjust my intake of healthy, WHOLE grain carbs, such as oatmeal, according to my metabolism and activity level. This seems to work fine for me. No more fat-free dressings or whipped topping. And away with the rice cakes!

My Love Letter to Yahoo! Food 2007

"I am so furious I don't know where to begin. It is just terrible that you promote and glorify alcohol, running these articles on booze. You make wine appear all elegant and sophisticated, and have recipes on margaritas, etc. Yahoo news runs stories on how unhealthy alcohol is, and yet YOU promote and glorify it, setting a terrible example. Alcohol is a toxic chemical that has been linked to cancer, birth defects, brain, heart and liver damage and other bad things. What's more, it is a MIND-ALTERING DRUG!!! That alone is what makes it wrong! We as grown adults should know better than to use a psychoactive drug! Just because alcohol is legal doesn't make it right. You wouldn't smoke pot, would you? Of course not. We tell our kids to stay away from drugs forever, that we should find NATURAL ways to enjoy life, not by using a drug. But booze-drinkers are after the same effect. They are no better than the pot smokers, except they aren't breaking the law. We can hardly chastise our youth for underage drinking, when grown adults make alcohol look so fun, glamorous, romantic, sophisticated and acceptable. Yahoo is setting a terrible example by promoting and glorifying this toxic, psychoactive drug!! It just makes me so mad! And I spoke up about alcohol on a wine blog in March, and my long time account was REVOKED WITHOUT WARNING!!! I was trying to HELP people! And you just deleted me forever, all my saved emails, important information, my groups, my webpage, gone forever!!! And then just now I was on a food story about college freshman diet tips, and some guy named Andrew (comment 29) made a rude post about how people should just stop stuffing their face and get off their a-word (only he used the actual word). Here he can use a crude word and be so rude, and I suppose nothing will happen to him! Yet I try to help people realize that alcohol is unhealthy and causes cancer, etc. and my longtime account was revoked without warning! IT JUST ISN'T FAIR!!! And you keep running these stories about fat and calories, which are totally wrong. It is not fat and calories that cause weight gain, it is sugar and refined carbs! I eat as much fat as I want, and never count calories! That's because I follow a controlled carb program, Somersize, which keeps my insulin level in check. Fat cannot be stored unless insulin is present. Your articles are just so wrong, and I keep posting about that, and yet you keep running them. Check out my weight loss story on my homepage at www.geocities.com/cindybin46 which will explain all about fat and calories and how wrong your stories are. Anyway, I am just REALLY upset with Yahoo Food, how you promote and glorify alcohol and set a terrible example, and how people can say rude, mean things about overweight people and they even use the a-word and probably nothing will happen to them, and yet my longtime account gets revoked without warning. It is just SO UPSETTING. Please stop running these stories about booze! Your wine blogs, like that one with Bonnie, are terrible! They set a terrible example! Nobody should drink alcohol! Again, we can hardly chastise our youth for underage drinking, when grown adults make alcohol look so fun, glamorous, romantic, sophisticated and acceptable. Adults should know better! Set an example!!!"

Sometimes you just gotta be firm and give 'em some "tough love".