Dechox 2017: Why the British Heart Foundation is encouraging us to give up chocolate this March

Each Lent, we often consider giving up something we eat too much of; sweets, puddings or chocolate, for example.

And now, the British Heart Foundation (BHF) is encouraging us to give up chocolate this March for another important reason: to raise money for life-saving research.

For the past two years, the charity’s Dechox challenge has had almost 40,000 people give up their favourite treats during March for an important cause.

At last year’s Dechox, 18,000 people took part and raised £860,000 towards research into heart and circulatory disease, which causes more than a quarter (26%) of all deaths in the UK.

As well as this, giving up chocolate (of course) has an important impact on your own health too.

According to the BHF, almost two fifths of Britons admit to eating chocolate as part of every meal in a single day.

Every meal? Come on folks, we can do better than that.

The survey of 2,000 UK adults also showed that nearly six in 10 underestimate just how many calories are in a typical chocolate bar (56%) and around half don’t realise how many calories are in our favourite chocolate treats such as a chocolate chip muffin (50%).

And because we love it so much, plenty of us realise it’s a pretty difficult snack to give up – a fifth of participants (20%) ranked chocolate as the hardest thing to give up.

But the Dechox challenge is called a challenge for a reason – and as well as proving the strength of your willpower, it could help those who’d benefit from essential research, and your own health too.

And if you don’t like chocolate, don’t feel you can’t take part – the BHF says you can give up crisps or something else you like instead.

Sign up to Dechox 2017 here.

Will you take part in the Great British Dechox? Tweet us at @YahooStyleUK.

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