Chocolate Oats! I'm in heaven!

Yes I really do like the chocolate porridge. It feels like I'm having a treat right at the start of the day! Why? Because I'm worth it?! Let's go with that.

When you look up the benefits of cocoa it is not all doom and gloom. You will find that cocoa without all the additives that normally go with chocolate (fats, sugars etc), is actually quite a healthy food. It provides things like a bunch of micronutrients (magnesium, manganese, potassium) as well as health enhancing chemicals like the phenolic antioxidants(1).

So it's not really the cocoa we should be avoiding in a healthy diet.

Having cocoa in breakfast originally felt a bit weird for me. But I really do enjoy this combination of flavours. There is no added sugar as the fruit takes care of any sweetness you need, although a drizzle of honey is not harmful if you like more sweetness.

If you have read my post on oats you will know that oats really are very good for you and finding new ways to include them in your food intake each day is a great habit to get in to. So give it a go and see what you think. I'm sure there are other combinations that are also waiting to be discovered!

As far as oats go, I would recommend avoiding the quick oats as they are high GI which means they are processed by our body a lot quicker. Ideally we are looking for low GI oats like rolled oats and steel cut oats. These are better for your health and have a higher fibre content. Generally speaking, the less processed the food, the more nutrients it will contain.

I would love to hear if you have tried this recipe and what you thought of it. Also if you have come up with any interesting porridge combinations, I would be very interested to hear of them.

Enjoy!

[1] Katz, D. L., Doughty, K., & Ali, A. (2011). Cocoa and Chocolate in Human Health and Disease. Antioxidants & Redox Signaling, 15(10), 2779–2811. https://doi.org/10.1089/ars.2010.3697