A respected doctor and best-selling author has suggested an unusual breakfast duo that could help your body burn harmful white fat. Dr William Li recommends starting the day with a combination of dark chocolate and coffee.
However, before you rush to stock up on chocolate, he emphasises that the type matters. According to Dr Li, dark chocolate with a cocoa percentage of around 80 per cent or higher is necessary.
Both coffee and dark chocolate are rich in polyphenols, compounds naturally found in plant foods believed to protect against various illnesses. “This is a double-barrelled approach,” Dr Li explained on the Great Company Podcast. “Dr Li, you’re asking people to eat chocolate? Yes, I am. Chocolate is actually a plant-based food.”
“Cacao comes from the cocoa pod. What’s in that seed pod? Polyphenol. What you want to look for is 80 per cent or higher. The more cacao you have, you’re getting a ton of these polyphenols in your chocolate, and these polyphenols trigger brown fat to fire off and burn off your harmful white fat. Dark chocolate does that,” reports Surrey Live.
“Now, the darker it is, the more bitter it’s going to be. So what I like to do is just get a little square of it and have it with coffee – a bit of chocolate, a sip of coffee. You’ve created your own mocha.
“Coffee also has polyphenols, chlorogenic acid. A cup of coffee will fire up your brown fat to burn down the harmful white fat every single morning. That’s a double-barrelled approach.”
Is chocolate healthy?
Dark chocolate that is at least 70 per cent cocoa is high in iron, magnesium, copper, and manganese. It also contains calcium, potassium, and zinc, as well as traces of vitamins A, B, E, and K.
An average 100-gram bar of dark chocolate has around 11 grams (or 0.39 ounces) of fibre – something that more than 90 per cent of Brits do not eat enough of every day. It also keeps your blood sugar levels in check, reducing cravings later on in the day.
Cocoa contains substances called flavanols that may improve insulin sensitivity in people who have pre-diabetes. They are antioxidants, meaning they help protect your cells from damage by free radicals, which are unstable molecules that can cause significant damage.
Much like the polyphenols in fruits, nuts, and seeds, those in dark chocolate “are like rocket fuel for your gut microbes,” says Professor Tim Spector. Cocoa is also a prebiotic, a type of fibre that your gut bacteria digest. It also contains polyphenols, which may help prevent blood clots, reduce blood sugar levels, and lower heart disease risk.
Is coffee healthy?
More and more studies are suggesting a limited amount of coffee a day is good for you.
Prof Spector said: “This is a health drink. The evidence is really clear: It can reduce heart attacks by 25 per cent.”
Coffee aficionados have a reason to rejoice as studies indicate that their favourite brew may actually lower the risk of heart conditions. Surprisingly, each cup contains about 1.5 grams of fibre—topping even a glass of orange juice—and knocking back three could contribute a significant chunk to your daily fibre needs.
Fascinating research from the Zoe health app, involving a whopping 40,000 stool samples, has pinpointed a gut bacterium called Lawsonibacter that’s prolific among coffee drinkers.
Prof Spector said: “What are the health benefits? One of the key things in coffee. It’s a complex area, but I think we’re suddenly putting it together from a drink that was demonised as being very harmful to us to something that actually could be beneficial. Coffee is this fermented plant that has microbes acting on.
“It has hundreds, not thousands, of chemicals produced from it. There’s range of polyphenols that are enhanced by the microbes as they ferment it. And those have direct effects on our body, and some of them can reduce blood sugar and reduce stress and actually reduce blood pressure. And the studies have now clearly shown that you get nearly as much benefit on the heart with decaffeinated coffee.”