Table of Contents
Introduction
Chocolates are not exactly one of the foods that athletes eat more often. After all, they contain a lot of fat and also bring plenty of sugar. Anyone who devours too much of it weighs a few grams more. You can score with a minimum of calories and leave nothing desired in terms of taste.
Why It Isn’t Easy To Do Without Pralines
Those who eat healthily in general and exercise regularly, now and then, desire something sweet. Sweets and pralines are anything but healthy because they contain many calories – especially a lot of fat and sugar. Chocolates and sweets have no place in an athlete’s diet.
However, eliminating the chocolates and sweets from the diet ultimately can be pretty exhausting, if not dangerous for a diet.
Sometimes the temptation is just too great that we cannot resist the sweet temptations and then reach for a praline or a piece of chocolate. However, most of the time, it is not just a piece of chocolate, which is why you usually use it more often than you would like.
Why Regular Sugar Can Ruin Your Figure
Sugar doesn’t have a reputation for being good for your health or body. On the contrary: Those who eat a lot of sugar tend to be overweight, and high sugar consumption can also increase the risk of other ailments and diseases, including tooth decay, high blood pressure, and diabetes mellitus. Maintaining weight with excessive sugar intake is not only complicated but impossible. Exercise doesn’t help much either. Exercise burns a lot of calories, but you can quickly replenish those calories with a bar of chocolate.
The biggest problem with conventional refined sugar (table sugar) is that we can’t stop eating. Because when it comes to chocolate, we often use it not just once, but several times. The calories ingested then land quickly on the hip and quickly destroy the success of weight loss or training. Usually, the sugar consumed is brought into the muscle cells as glucose. Here the glucose is either burned immediately, for example, during training or stored in the form of glycogen.
As soon as the glycogen stores are full, however, the body converts the glucose into fat.
However, sugar also increases your insulin levels, which can lead to food cravings. This primarily affects people who pay attention to a calorie-conscious diet every day and therefore eat a low carb or low-fat diet. One praline is then enough to tip the diet and contribute to a yo-yo effect.
Also Read: How Much Protein Per Day Is Healthy And Helps You Lose Weight?
Sugar-Free Pralines: What Are The Benefits?
Sugar-free chocolates take some getting used to for many people. After all, chocolate should taste good and not be “healthy.” The pralines from Sportnahrung Engel prove that pralines and chocolate can definitely taste good and do not necessarily have to be unhealthy. These pralines are suitable for figure-conscious people as well as ambitious athletes. They do not contain ordinary table sugar, but a sugar substitute or a sweetener so that the pralines taste sweet on the one hand but do not have too many calories per serving on the other.
While conventional sweets with white sugar increase insulin levels, chocolates without sugar keep the insulin level reasonably constant to minimize the risk of food cravings.
Other ingredients, such as cocoa, are responsible for the outstanding taste of the sugar-free pralines. Usually, sugar-free pralines have a slightly higher cocoa content than milk chocolate so that they taste just as good, if not slightly better.
Why You Should Eat Sugar-Free Chocolates As An Athlete
Athletes, in particular, have difficulties with sweets. Many athletes, therefore, regularly insert a so-called cheat day to consume more calories than usual once a week and to replenish their carbohydrate stores completely. It is often the desire for something sweet that throws us a spanner in the works and massively endangers the success of our customers. Those who often cannot resist the sweet temptation run the risk of succumbing to the dreaded yo-yo effect and thus having to start the diet again.
In terms of taste, sugar-free pralines can hardly be distinguished from conventional chocolate. The high cocoa content – combined with a subtle sweetness – makes these pralines irresistible for athletes, which is anything but sweet. Instead of white household sugar, sugar substitutes are used to make sugar-free pralines. This means that these pralines contain significantly fewer calories than classic chocolate.
Usually, pralines have more than 50 percent fewer calories – which is a great advantage for athletes if they want to snack now and then. You don’t need to feel guilty about enjoying the sugar-free pralines, but you should still enjoy the sweets in moderation, as they still contain a certain amount of carbohydrates and calories. The following applies to your sports nutrition: the less sugar you consume, the better.
Why The Diet And Chocolates Should Be Sugar-Free
Sugar-free chocolates are always the best choice for athletes. Otherwise, you should also pay attention to a low-sugar diet. If you consume too much sugar, the body tends to slide into the acidic zone, making you feel tired, and your performance drops. Too much sugar is also suspected of causing muscle pain, which can lead to poorer training results. Not to forget that sugar can drive up your insulin levels and cause insulin spikes, followed by food cravings.
Another disadvantage of sugar is that it can block fat burning, preventing you from losing weight. However, very few people know that sugar is also suspected of robbing the body of essential vitamins and minerals. High sugar consumption can also have a long-term negative impact on the digestive system and intestinal flora because pathogenic bacteria can multiply in the intestine, which primarily feeds on sugar.
To eat less sugar in everyday life and not be tempted, you should be prepared. Especially in critical situations, for example, when you are out and about a lot, when you are invited to friends or when certain holidays are coming up, it is best to use healthy snacks (fruit and vegetables) and make your diet high in protein, for example with
- low-fat meat
- low-fat fish
- Legumes
- Eggs
If you consume carbohydrates, they should consist of whole grains if possible. It would help if you also drank a lot because it fills the stomach and makes you feel full longer.
Also Read: 5 Reasons Jogging Lose Weight Works So Well
Sugar-Free Pralines: Which Sugar Alternatives Are Used?
Instead of household sugar, sugar-free pralines are made using sugar substitutes, which on the one hand, hardly contain any calories and, on the other hand, taste just as sweet. These include:
Xylitol
It is a sugar substitute found primarily in plants, including coconuts and birch wood. It is generally considered tooth-friendly and is therefore used not only for making pralines but also for other sweets.
Erythritol
Arises from the fermentation of glucose (grape sugar). Unlike sugar, this sugar substitute does not affect insulin levels and, thanks to its low glycemic index, is perfect for a low-carb diet.
Stevia
It is also a purely plant-based sweetener that is said to be 300 times sweeter than sugar. In addition, the sugar substitute obtained from the stevia plant has almost no calories.
Protein Truffles
Protein truffles are a great example of how you can snack without regrets. The delicious pralines come in delicious flavors and contain significantly more protein than sugar. They contain around 1 gram of sugar with a protein content of 30 percent. The high protein content benefits you, for example, if you want to build muscles or maintain muscle substance.
A whey and milk protein combination support the timely and long-term protein supply, while the contained fiber is good for the intestine. Due to the high protein content, the Protein Truffles are a welcome snack in between to avoid hunger pangs and to keep the insulin level constant.
Protein Bites
Just like protein truffles, protein bites are a delicious snack on the go. As long as you have these chocolates in your pocket, you run the risk of reaching for an unhealthy and high-sugar snack. Protein Bites also contain 30 percent protein, consisting exclusively of whey protein – a quickly digestible source of protein.
In addition, the low sugar content contributes to a calorie-conscious diet. Protein Bites are made up of individual pralines so that you can eat the bar in portions if necessary. In this way, you not only keep your hunger in check – your insulin level also remains constant.
Conclusion
Doing without sugar in everyday life is not that difficult. First and foremost, you should generally avoid foods that contain white sugar (natural table sugar) and replace them with sugar substitutes such as stevia, xylitol, or erythritol. The delicious pralines from Sportnahrung Engel help you get a grip on food cravings and still satisfy your craving for sweets.