While on the Chocolate Diet or any weight loss program, besides avoiding the three white poisons, I also suggest people ‘eat a rainbow’ whenever possible and replace some standard white starches with colorful, phytonutrient rich alternatives.
Potatoes: First, stop eating French Fries and potato chips as are high calorie due to all the oil. No matter how healthy a food is to start, frying will produce a non-healthy, fat-laden version. Second, replace the baked potato (plus the butter and sour cream) with better versions of the standard Idaho potato. One common substitute is a sweet potato which has a fantastic flavor and requires no salt, no brown sugar, etc. Sweet potatoes are an extremely healthy choice plus they contain the phytonutrients known as carotenoids. Another alternative is a purple potato (or blue potato) which produces much more of the antioxidant anthocyanin, given it a unique hue and flavor. There are also pink, red, and other colored potatoes that would make wonderful replacements on the dinner table.
Rice: Many people have been replacing white rice with brown rice, since the milling and polishing process for white rice strips the foot of its vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, and dietary fiber. However, it turns out there are other forms of rice that have all the nutritional features of brown rice, plus some high levels of antioxidants! This includes red, purple, and black rice. Black rice has the highest amount of phytonutrients and is what I have at my table. For part of China’s history, black rice was only for the Emperor’s family and was called ‘forbidden rice’. Luckily, in the 21st century, it is an excellent healthy alternative for everyone!