Tags
British National Health Services, Cough Supressant, Dark Chocolate, Fair-Trade, T-Tapp, Theobromine
Happy National Chocolate Candy Day! In honor of such a special day, I thought I’d share some news I recently heard with all of you. Dark chocolate, that amazing substance touted for its level of antioxidants, ability to lift mood, lower blood pressure, and improve cardiovascular health, now can be your go to substance if you have a cough. Where did I hear this? Well…
…I am a T-Tapper. T-Tapp is an exercise program developed by Teresa Tapp (hence the moniker) and I like it because I do feel it lives up to its purpose by putting my body in linear alignment and it gets my heart rate up in a 15 to 20 minute workout. Interested in learning more? Check out the website here. As a T-Tapper, I am also a subscriber to the newsletter. In the December issue, Teresa Tapp mentioned a study stating dark chocolate contains theobromine which can have a suppression affect on persistent coughs.
I headed to Google on my own and found some articles referencing the study. Theobromine, a substance found in cocoa, had a better effect calming coughs than codeine without any harmful effects on the cardiovascular and central nervous systems. Great news, right? Well, perhaps not.
Participants found their coughs returned once they stopped taking theobromine. Also, I found an article that states 1,000 mg of theobromine were used in the study and one ounce of unsweetened dark chocolate only contains 450 mg. An entire bar of chocolate would have to be eaten per day in order to have the same effect. That’s a lot of chocolate to eat and neither my waistline nor my pocketbook would thank me. Still, the research is interesting.
I’m partial to Theo, Endangered Species, Dagoba, and Equal Exchange Chocolates brands and am always looking for other fair-trade non-dairy options. Now, I have another scientific reason to do so!
Articles I looked at:
