5. Swap milk or white chocolate with dark chocolate (75 per cent or more cocoa)
MILK or white chocolate should be swapped with dark chocolate due to the number of potential benefits associated with dark chocolate alongside the improved nutritional content. Dark chocolate has been associated with improving components of health, i.e. blood pressure, alongside also being found to reduce the oxygen cost of exercise (meaning that exercise should feel easier) in turn having potential positive influences on performance. Dark chocolate also contains certain antioxidant components which may be useful when recovering from exercise by reducing the soreness felt in the muscles, however this may not be useful for letting the body adapt to the exercise just undertaken. Finally dark chocolate is made up of less refined sugars than that included within milk or white chocolate.
Marc Fell BSc (hons), MSc
Twitter: @MarcFell1
Email: j.m.fell@2014.ljmu.ac.uk
