Eat Chocolate to Cure a Gross Cough? Here's What You Need to Know

Pass the Godiva, because chocolate may cure your cough better than codeine, according to “science.”

Professor Alyn Morice, head of respiratory studies at Hull University told the Daily Mail that the sweet treat has soothing benefits. Previous research has shown that theobromine, an alkaloid in cocoa, is better at suppressing the urge to cough than codeine, which is the typical ingredient in prescription cough medicines.

Another study from 2016 found that when 137 patients took a form of cough syrup Unicough, which contained cocoa, it did, in fact, work better than a leading OTC cough medicine. “The head-to-head comparison found that patients taking the chocolate-based medicine had a significant improvement within two days,” Dr. Morice wrote in the Daily Mail article.

Skeptical about biting a Kit-Kat to stop your full-on cough attack? You might be right.

Health found that the Daily Mail story had taken on a life of its own, and the leading professor of the study said it may have been the ammonium chloride (an expectorant) and levomenthol (the minty taste in cough syrups) that helped stop the cough (and not the cocoa).

Of course, you should consult a trained medical professional any time you’re feeling ill.

But popping a piece of chocolate to make us (read: our stomachs) feel a little better? Now those are some doctor’s orders we can get behind.