For many of us, chocolate constitutes a natural, relaxing medication when we’re feeling tired, angry or overwhelmed. A new study now claims that chocolate isn’t just a psychological remedy, but it has healing effects on coughing and sore throat! It’s official – chocolate isn’t just a cheat treat anymore, but we finally have permission to eat it to get better.

Professor Alyn Morice, from Hull University, published a new research claiming that chocolate soothes coughing and a sore throat. Morice is a respected authority in the field of medicine, and more specifically, she’s a cough expert – so she knows what she’s talking about.

According to her research, chocolate forms a sticky coating in our throat that protects the nerve endings which cause us to cough. But wait, that isn’t all – it turns out that cocoa contains natural cough-suppressing ingredients, and these are released when the melted chocolate comes in contact with our throat nerves, and calms them down – just like chocolate calms down our nerves. Morice further claims that chocolate performs better as a medicine for coughing and sore throat than any Rx medication, cough syrup, and even better than tea with honey and lemon, as we’ve always been told.

However (why must there always be a “however”?) – this only applies to pieces of chocolate, and not, say, hot chocolate. While drinking hot beverages on cold days can’t hurt us, it doesn’t necessarily heal us either. According to this study, hot chocolate doesn’t have the same effect as a piece of chocolate, since the beverage doesn’t maintain enough contact with the nerves in our throat, while the piece of chocolates sticks to it and works its magic.

Next time you have a sore throat accompanied by a nasty cough, before you go on buying medication, try popping a piece of dark, concentrated chocolate and enjoy yourself!

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3384154/Never-mind-honey-lemon-best-cure-cough-CHOCOLATE-Leading-professor-busts-common-cough-myths.html