If you love chocolate, you’re going to love this blog post! According to a new research study, chocolate (and the more cocoa in it the better), can actually help make some sick people feel a whole lot better, often in cases where medication has failed. Wow! I always knew chocolate was pretty powerful stuff, but this is pretty cool! How does it work? It turns out that there are chemicals in chocolate known as phenols. Phenols may have an effect on a special substance in our brains known as serotonin. Serotonin is low in people who have a disabling disease called chronic fatigue syndrome. People with chronic fatigue syndrome are tired all the time. But taking 45 g of dark chocolate a day actually helped them feel a lot better!

So how much chocolate is 45 g? It is about half a regular sized tablet chocolate bar. And even though chocolate is rich in fat, the good news is that no one in the study gained weight. Weighing too much is another health risk. And scientists wouldn’t want to treat a disease with something that harms your body in another way. And of course, there is another benefit—chocolate tastes great! I bet a lot of you chocolate fans out there could have told the researchers that chocolate makes you feel great, even without doing a study! Wouldn’t it be great if one day your mom gave you Smarties™ to cure a sniffling nose? Who “nose?” Bring on some more delicious medication!