Is it ok to eat sugar-free chocolate (with sweetener)?

When many people start a Candida eliminating diet they often crave something sweet, especially chocolate.

These cravings are even worse for people who ate chocolate everyday as chocolate has a couple of chemicals that have addictive qualities. Chocolate contains both caffeine and theobromine. These both are responsible for the mood altering qualities of chocolate.

Chocolate also has a lot of antioxidants, so it can be beneficial to one’s body, however, since chocolate is pretty bitter on its own, it’s usually sweetened with sugar or artificial sugars to make it palatable.

For those trying to eliminate sugar while on a Candida diet, here lies the problem. Even sugar-free chocolate could still possibly feed Candida albicans yeast. (I wrote an article previously about how artificial sweeteners can feed yeast infections.)

Chocolate Verdict

My advice would be to avoid any type of sweetened chocolate for the first two months of the yeast eliminating diet. If you feel like you are withdrawing, you could eat unsweetened chocolate nibs, which are just small pieces of natural cocoa beans. These could help with the cravings.

After two months it would be acceptable to consume a small amount of 60% Cacao or higher dark chocolate a couple times a week as a treat. There are health benefits to eating chocolate, therefore, it can be a part a healthy diet.

However, Dark Chocolate shouldn’t be consumed everyday because of its high sugar content.  For chocolate addicts the first two months on a Candida diet will be hard, but it doesn’t mean that you’ll never be able to eat chocolate again. You just have to be mindful of the way you consume it when starting the maintenance phase of the yeast eliminating diet.