Hello and welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition's Ask a Nutritionist podcast, brought to you by

Nutritional Weight and Wellness. My name is Leah Klinechroat. I'm a registered and licensed

dietitian and we are thrilled to be celebrating 20 years on air discussing the connection

between what you eat and how you feel while also sharing practical real light solutions

for healthier living through balanced nutrition. We just wanted to take a moment and thank you

the listeners for your support and your listenership over the years. Now let's get started.

On today's show, I will be answering a group of related questions that we received from one of our Dishing Up Nutrition listeners. Now, this listener

says, Hello, I have read articles about how dark chocolate is good for insulin resistance, but what about the sugar

that is in a dark chocolate bar? Do the benefits of the chocolate outweigh the harm caused by the

sugar? And as someone who has reversed pre-diabetes, should I consume dark chocolate for the

benefits or avoid it because of the sugar?

Should I look for chocolate sweetened with stevia or just have hot cocoa with stevia?

So again, a group of questions, all interrelated. And so I'm going to try to make sure I hit

on each one of these. And I just wanted to

thank that listener also for sending in these questions. I've personally always been a chocolate

lover, so I'm excited to have the opportunity to just chat about one of my favorite topics.

To keep it short and sweet, the short answer is yes, dark chocolate has been shown to have at least some mild

anti-diabetic effects.

So again, it can help to reduce some insulin resistance.

And when we're talking about dark chocolate, we are talking about the cocoa content,

70%, 80%, 90%, so we're really in that dark chocolate range. Yes, you will be getting some sugar along for the ride, but in looking

at the research on chocolate and its connections to various chronic illnesses, diseases, or just general

...