Take Two M&Ms and Call Me in the Morning

Perhaps someday the doctor will prescribe chocolate for your cough, reports the Chicago Sun Times. Results of a small study conducted at Imperial College London and Royal Brompton Hospital found theobromine, an ingredient in chocolate, stops persistent coughs better than codeine by suppressing the vagus nerve activity that causes coughing and without that drug’s sleep-inducing side effects.However, until someone comes out with chocolate cough medicine, you’ll have to consume 7 oz. — more than 1,100 calories — of dark chocolate to get the needed dose. (For more on chocolate and health, see “A Healthy Valentine’s Day,” Food Processing, February 2005.)