Help me with my chocolate addiction?

[jrose_lee]

must.give.up.chocolate.

any advice? substitutes? I'm having a tough time with this one....
I've only tried toasted carob in the past or carob chips. They weren't too great. Never tried raw though.

Help?

[Sharon in Colorado]

Before everyone tells you to go and eat a bunch of "raw cacao" I have to say the only sure-fire way to stop eating chocolate is to just STOP. There really is no other way. It is like any other addiction. Some people might do okay with tapering it off, but that has not been my experience.

And cacao is the SAME as chocolate, same addicting compounds and chemicals, it is NOT healthier, just to let you know, because someone always seems to come on these types of threads pushing the raw cacao.

You can get raw carob powder, it doesn't taste much the same, but you can use it as a substitute.

[Stina]

I'm in recovery from a pretty serious chocalate addiction! I'm doing pretty well with Raw carob and vanilla extract and Raw agave (allegedly!) blended with frozen banana, like every night. It's meeting the need.

[Indi]

Hi jrose_lee

I had a very difficult time giving up chocolate.
I ate a totally raw vegan diet for six months, then started to crave chocolate.
Infact, i became obsessed with the stuff!

I increased my intake of raw fat, mainly in the form of avocado.
The addiction stopped almost over night.
It was fat that my body was craving, i just chose to get it from the chocolate!

You can make lots 'mock chocolate' delicious recipes using blended avocado as your base.

Increasing raw fat worked for me, it may be worth giving it a try.
Good luck :)

[tammay]

Well, David Wolfe suggests deseeding (is that a word?) a date and putting an almond in it as a way to break a chocolate addiction. Haven't tried it, though.

Here's a recipe I sometimes make when I'm craving chocolate, tweaked from "Raw Food Made Easy". It's a single serving, which works for me, since I love sweets and have a hard time if it's more than a single serving :D:

1/4 cup raw walnuts
3 dates, pitted
1-2 tbsp raw carob powder
1 tsp raw honey (if you like it sweet - you can substitute water)
dash vanilla (optional)

Put walnuts in a mini food processor and blend until finely grounded. Add dates, vanilla, and carob and blend until mixture begins to gather. Add honey/water and blend. Form into balls and refrigerate.

I usually shape this into one of those tiny sauce bowls you can get at Walmart and put it in the fridge. Then I release the sides with a knife and turn it over in a plate and it looks just like a mini cake. This isn't a large amount but I've found that it's very rich and very satisfying.

Hope that helps!

Tam