Chocolate-covered strawberries are great, right? Heck, anything covered in chocolate is usually pretty good. The thing is – chocolate-covered foods are generally not super healthy for you. Those who are constantly craving chocolate can work it into their diets though.

ABC Health recently put together a list of the five ways that one can eat chocolate the healthy way. The fan favorite chocolate-covered strawberries make the list, but it’s suggested that we not cover the entire strawberry in chocolate. Instead, you might want to drizzle a bit of melted chocolate over your strawberries. As it turns out, most foods turn out pretty good with a little chocolate drizzled over it. One example is popcorn, but we’re even challenged to try out chocolate-covered asparagus.

Now, you may have already eaten chocolate in some of the other suggested ways, but this is about being healthy. For instance, you probably have mixed chocolate into a smoothie before. Chances are, however, it wasn’t all that healthy. This time, it’s suggested that you mix in either some dark chocolate or some unsweetened cocoa mix.

Another route to make chocolate healthier is to add it to your cereal. Of course, at this point you argue that Cocoa Pebbles have a daily dose of essential vitamins and minerals. It’s also pure sugar. To make it healthier, either add melted dark chocolate to hot oatmeal or put some chocolate shavings onto cold cereal.

If you want something a little more traditional, you can add chocolate to any kind of nut butter. While you can easily buy peanut butter mixed with chocolate at the grocery store, that’s not going to cut it. Instead, you should make your own peanut butter and add chocolate to it.

Finally, it turns out that a lot of traditional dishes call for chocolate. Ever had chili with chocolate added to it? You might not think so, but you probably have had it at a restaurant. Like cinnamon, chocolate is an excellent addition to chili as it adds a dash of sweetness to what is usually a spicy dish.

While there are more ways than just those above to make chocolate healthy, there is one commonality between them all – dark chocolate. While the taste of milk chocolate is irresistible, it’s also incredibly unhealthy for us. The key to healthy chocolate is to use dark chocolate as it retains many of the antioxidants that make cocoa such a healthy food in the first place. It may take a while to get used to, but it definitely the best tasting chocolate once you do.

If you want more ways to make chocolate healthy, you might want to check out Living Healthy with Chocolate. The site has recipes and tips that help turn a dieter’s worst nightmare into a delight.

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