Chocolate Can Fight Coughs Better Than Some Cold Medicine—Here’s Why
Updated: Feb. 04, 2019
Forget honey and lemon. You may be able to cure your cough with chocolate!
Got a Nagging Cough? Chocolate Might Help!
A nagging, persistent cough can take you down for days—if not weeks. (Here’s when you should start worrying about a cough that won’t go away.) The answer has always been rest, fluids and cough medicine. Fortunately, there’s a new treatment that is even more effective and a lot more enjoyable. The answer to your prayers may be sitting in your pantry.
A recent study conducted by Professor Alyn Morice, a cough expert from Hull University, found that cough sufferers who ate chocolate recovered faster than those taking traditional cough medicine!
Wait—How Does That Even Work?
Researchers split the 163 participants into two groups and administered either traditional cough medicine or medicine containing cocoa. The chocolate group reported significant improvement in their coughs after just two days.
So how does chocolate help a cough? First, chocolate itself is more sticky than traditional cough syrup. That means that it’s better at coating your throat, preventing irritation that causes you to cough. When the nerve endings in our throat become hypersensitive from a cold or the flu, it causes us to cough and spread the illness. Because chocolate is thick and sticky like honey, it calms down the nerves and quickly soothes a cough.
Chocolate may be the perfect cough medicine, because in addition to its perfect consistency, it contains compounds that have other health benefits, too. Here are 16 more classic home remedies with surprising health benefits.
Ready to Try It?
Before you run to the store and stock up in the candy aisle, it’s important to note that not all chocolate is created equal. Sipping a mug of hot cocoa sounds soothing, but won’t actually help your cough. The research indicates that cough medicine with cocoa is the most helpful, but until that’s readily available, try slowly sucking on a piece of quality dark chocolate. This will allow the delicious candy to coat your throat and give you fast coughing relief.
Here are four more natural cough remedies that provide instant relief.
