Making your healthy -as good as store bought chocolate- alternative is as simple as 15 minutes of your time, 3 simple ingredients and a food processor! That rich, melt in your mouth feel of butter is perfectly matched by a healthier and nutritionally superior option: Avocado! Rather than the blood sugar spiking, mood depressing, energy suppressing processed white sugar consider a natural sweetener with complex sugars and a chewy feel offered by dates! And of course we can’t have truffles without chocolate…
Ingredients:
1/4 avocado 1/3 cup pitted dates 2 tbsp cocoa powder * To make to your taste preference: for a stronger chocolaty flavour, up the chocolate and for a more smooth creamy feel double the avocado content.Directions: Use a food processor to combine all the ingredients. This would give you a crumbly mixture which you can then form into little balls using your hands. Roll in coconut shreds or cocoa powder to finish!
Benefits:
1. Fiber content of dates as well as the natural oils and protein of avocado would inhibit a spike in blood sugar (and insulin) levels thereby preventing the sugar highs and lows that come with most chocolates.
2. Avocados being high in magnesium means you are doing every muscle -from skeletal muscles to your heart- in your body a favor by allowing a general relaxation. Magnesium can also help with mood and sleep as it is a pre-requisite for both serotonin and melatonin production -your feel-good and sleep hormones respectively.
3. Avocado is a source of healthy unsaturated fats. Every cell in your body needs unsaturated fatty acids as the membrane that surrounds every cell is composed of these fats which give cell membranes their ‘fluid’ nature. The saturated fats on the other hand, due to their chemical structure cause formation of stiffer bonds thereby creating stiff cell membranes. Although also considered an essential nutrient, most standard North American diets tend to consume much higher levels than required of the saturated (stiff) fats while not nearly enough unsaturated (fluid) fats. This imbalance in saturated vs. unsaturated fat ratio is unhealthy as it is the fluid capabilities of every cell membrane that allows it to function (including electrolyte exchange, signaling, cell detoxification, cell hydration, etc).
Enjoy your chocolate guilt-free knowing you are not only providing a delicacy for your taste buds but are also changing the health of every cell in your body!
Happy Valentines!
