I have heard of this before...wonder it's true!

I eat chocolate every single day and have being doing so since around...October, after the wedding. ^_^ Amazingly I have not gained weight (with the exception of the New Year's weight gain...ha ha, beyond choco reasons) from eating so much chocolate. I wondered why but perhaps this article explains it? I wonder if the claims are legit... pic to the left are cocoa beans...woooo.

In a mouth-watering claim sure to make many chew the fat, a Japanese doctor tells Shukan Gendai that eating chocolate can help you lose weight. "Chocolate lovers can still enjoy the tastes they like and lose weight while doing so," Hiroshige Itakura, an Ibaraki Christian University professor specializing in "lifestyle diseases," like hypertension and hardening of the arteries, tells Shukan Gendai. Eating chocolate for a month could lead to a loss of 2 to 3 kilograms.

Itakura continues, explaining how he thinks the "chocolate diet" works. "Cacao contains a substance called cacao polyphenal that absorbs glucose and burns fat. Cacao is also really rich in natural fiber, which also absorbs fat and loosens the bowels. Then there's a substance called theobromine, which is what gives cacao its bitterness, but also has relaxing quantities that can combat stress -- a major cause of overeating," the doctor says. "Chocolate also has plenty of vitamins and minerals, so there's no worry about losing these, either."Itakura adds more.

"If 'bad' cholesterol in the bloodstream is oxidized it leads to the formation of plague that lines the artery walls, which in turn hardens the arteries, makes it more difficult for them to contract and causes high blood pressure. Chocolate combats the oxidization of cholesterol and thus works to prevent the hardening of the arteries," Itakura tells Shukan Gendai. "What's more, cacao also contains properties that fight against harmful bacteria."