Chocoholics rejoice! We’ve talked about the feel-good benefits of chocolate before, but did you know that certain cacao confections could also help you focus on your work, fight off the flu, or even spice up your love life?

A growing industry of “functional chocolates” is adding health-promoting supplements, spices, and herbs to its confections. These treats may be able to help you improve your health while indulging your sweet tooth.

Chocolate is already known to offer a myriad of health benefits—the heart-healthy flavonoids found in cocoa lower blood pressure and reduce bad cholesterol. Now, companies like Gnosis Chocolate, founded by 2007 Integrative Nutrition graduate Vanessa Barg, are leveraging the natural benefits of raw, organic chocolate by adding “extracts of other health-promoting foods such as goji berries (also high in antioxidants), ginseng (which can help control blood sugar and increase energy) and ginkgo biloba (which is often touted as a memory aid).”

IIN speaker Michael Jacobson and the Center for Science in the Public Interest tops the news this week calling for the real truth about whole grains. A country-wide debate hits Manhattan, when farmers from all over fill a New York courtroom to protest GMO crops. A new study claims a chocolate breakfast can aid weight loss, while the NY Times explores mindful eating. And as a special Valentine's Day bonus: skip the unhealthy sugar laden chocolate treats and opt for some healthy substitutes for your sweetie. 

The Whole Truth About Whole Grains
Featuring IIN speaker Michael Jacobson
ABC News
On Wednesday, February 8, the Center for Science in the Public Interest petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to stop letting manufacturers label their foods “Whole Grain” when they really aren’t and to start putting the percentage of whole grain on the packaging. The government has encouraged Americans to eat more whole grains because they help prevent heart disease, but the FDA has never established a legal definition of what constitutes a whole grain. Read more.

If your resolution for the New Year is to lose weight, you might want to think twice before you announce your plans to your family and friends. Doctors are taking a closer look at effective diet plans, and some are recommending that their patients keep their weight loss intentions to themselves.

Doctor John Walz, who specializes in weight loss, tells CNN that a big part of why he tells his patients to not let others in on their plans is because, by human nature, we tend to spend our time with like-minded people. Obese people generally associate with other obese people, so when one person decides to lose weight they are met with discouragement and judgment from their peers.  

"Deliberately or not, the family, the friends, the other people who are part of that individual's culture will resist the change," Walz says. "(They) will try to change them back to what the culture tolerates."

Another argument for weight loss secrecy is more personal. Dr. Peter Gollwitzer, a professor of psychology at New York University, studies the correlation between telling people what your goals are and actually achieving them. In his research paper “When Intentions Go Public,” Gollwitzer says that the praise we receive for setting goals satisfies us to the point where we don’t feel the need to actually achieve them.

The solution, Gollwitzer says, is simple: "You can keep your mouth shut," or "Form different kinds of intention – not only say what you want to do but also when, where and how you want to do it."

Vista McCroskery, a 2011 graduate from Nacogdoches, TX, grew up on a small farm where she planted her own seeds and enjoyed organic fruits and vegetables. When she moved away, her diet and lifestyle drastically changed, and consequently she became overwhelmed with serious health problems. She did not seek help for a long time, but years of medications and stress forced her to make a change.

After rediscovering whole foods and primary foods through the Health Coaching Training Program, Vista was able to move away from her medications and lose an astonishing 100 pounds. She launched her own health coaching business, and currently has three books in the making. Most importantly, Vista has returned to a state of happiness and self-confidence, and after a long, difficult journey, she’s finally living to her full potential.

As our graduates have proven time and time again, health coaching truly can help people improve their wellness, happiness, and quality of life. But can the same effects achieved through in-person counseling be replicated over the phone?

A new study from the New England Journal of Medicine says absolutely! Scope, the Stanford University Medical blog concluded, "Remote weight loss interventions, such as online or phone counseling by health coaches, are as equally effective as programs requiring face-to-face contact, according to findings presented this week at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting in Orlando, Fla."

We’re bringing you a special edition of our graduate Q&A this week, as we take a look into the life of not one, but two Health Coaches! Jeff and Cindy Berkowitz have been married for 26 years, and both are 2011 graduates of the Health Coach Training Program. They live in Pittsburgh, PA, with their three children.

Cindy was working in a high-pay, high-stress position as a family law paralegal when she took a fall that injured her back and ruined her knee. She underwent total knee replacement surgery, which left her unable to live a normal life, let alone go back to work. That’s when she enrolled at Integrative Nutrition, the start of a major life transformation.

With a background in physics and food chemistry, Jeff was a chef for 25 years before he began suffering from a variety of inflammatory diseases. At age 48, he was on 15 different medications, plus narcotics to treat the pain. He enrolled at Integrative Nutrition hoping to gain a sense of control over his own life. One year later, he is off all medication and 40 pounds lighter! 

Cindy and Jeff graduated together this year and now find themselves leading a completely different, significantly healthier lifestyle. They’ve discovered a new career as Health Coaches in their practice, Intuitive Holistic Health. The couple specializes in autoimmune diseases, inflammatory diseases and endocrine problems, working to help clients take control of their health. In addition to their practice, Cindy and Jeff teach cooking classes, hold corporate workshops and wellness programs, develop healthy recipes for commercial production, and write a food blog. Read more about this dynamic duo below!

Who'd have thought an unreleased children's book could cause such media hysteria? Maggie Goes on a Diet by Paul Kramer has done just that, though, heaving news writers, bloggers, and parents everywhere into a frenzied state of indignation and protest.

The book, due out in October, follows the journey of a 14-year-old girl named Maggie. Maggie is overweight, unpopular, and a victim of verbal bullying by her classmates. Only when she goes on a diet, loses weight and joins the soccer team does she achieve "popularity and fame."

The highly disturbing messages of this children’s book have already been extensively covered by the media (LATimes, ABC, TIME, Huffington Post, to name a few). The internet is in uproar over the implication that children should diet, the association between weight and popularity, and (perhaps most horrifying) the body-dysmorphic cover image.

Paul Kramer defends the publication, claiming he is just trying to encourage children to adopt a healthier lifestyle. He sees Maggie's post-weight loss popularity as a product of her increased self-confidence and not as an endorsement of stigmatizing overweight children. "I’m not advocating, never did, that any child should go on a diet," said the author said in an interview with Fox News. "First of all, this is a change of lifestyle. This is not meant to be to go on a diet."

Do you try to be compassionate towards others? What about towards yourself?

A new area of psychological research that looks at how kindly people view themselves has been finding that many individuals who find it easy to be compassionate towards others often score low on self-compassion tests.

“Self-compassion is the missing ingredient in every diet and weight-loss plan,” says author and Harvard psychotherapist Jean Fain. Her new book, The Self-Compassion Diet proposes this idea and a recent New York Times article discusses the new wave of research behind the concept.

So, why aren’t more of us practicing self-compassion? Some researchers found that one of the biggest reasons is that individuals are afraid of being self-indulgent. Self-compassion should not be confused with self-indulgence or keeping low standards for yourself.

It’s also difficult to unlearn habits that you have learned over a lifetime. Self-compassion can only have room to develop from active and conscious practice.

Our culture conveys to us from an early age that being self-critical and hard on ourselves is the way to be. From that stems the common advice that many doctors and self-help books provide about self-discipline and willpower being the keys to better health. However, experts are finding that self-compassion actually creates motivation.

A majority of common diet plans revolve around self-discipline, deprivation and neglect, however new data suggests that self-compassion can impact how much we eat, what kind of things we eat and even help some people lose weight. Perhaps even more noteworthy is that people who practice self-compassion have lower levels of depression and anxiety and are happier and more optimistic, overall.

Do you think there is room for you to be more self-compassionate?

Do you use public transportation to get around your city or town?  If you do, a new study suggests that the extra bit of walking to and from your rail or bus stop will help you lose weight. 

John M. MacDonald, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who studied the effects of a new light-rail line in Charlotte, N.C says that using the subway or bus increased the physical activity, and therefore the body-mass index, of people who started using it.The New York Times reported that those Charlotte residents surveyed who began to walk to the light rail instead of driving to work walked on average 1.2 miles total on their commutes to and from work.  The average weight reduction found was 1.18 B.M.I. point.

If you commute by public transportation, you can increase your daily physical activity by getting off a stop earlier.  Everyone else can incorporate more exercise into their daily routine by using the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator, walking or biking short distances instead of using the car, or parking far away from the entrance of a store where you are shopping.

What are other ways to incorporate more movement into your life?

Obesity is a multi-layered health issue in America.  Many health advocates are calling out sodas, fast food, lifestyle and genetics as culprits on the list of those to blame for the crisis.  Now there is a new name to add to the list of usual suspects in the fight against weight gain: obesogens.

Researchers have targeted obesogens which are chemicals that disrupt the function of hormonal systems.  An article from MSNBC details how they “enter our bodies from a variety of sources — natural hormones found in soy products, hormones administered to animals, plastics in some food and drink packaging, ingredients added to processed foods, and pesticides sprayed on produce.  They act in a variety of ways: by mimicking human hormones such as estrogen, by misprogramming stem cells to become fat cells and, researchers think, by altering the function of genes.”

This research gives us more evidence and reason to advocate for organically grown whole foods.  As the article suggests, you can enjoy the foods you love, just make sure they are from natural sources free of antibiotics and chemicals.

Do you think that burgers and fries should remain off the list of foods for someone trying to lose weight even if they are of the all natural variety?