Day 8: How chocolate saved the day.....

For the past four days, we've been on a mostly B-R-A-T diet, except for the B part....I didn't have the energy to go out to buy the bananas. The Banana, Rice, Applesause and Toast diet is what that means and it's supposed to help you through an upset stomach. All but one of us needed this diet as we struggled through one terrible 12-hour stomach bug. I will spare you the disgusting details but I've heard sever people say, "I'd rather be sick with a cold for a month than to have a stomach bug." or "I'd rather have a broken arm than that!" I think I'd quite agree with both of those statements at the moment.

So while we're eating BRAT, diffusing peppermint, slurping chicken broth, sipping on blue Gatorade and rubbing other essential oils on our tummies these past few days, we keep sneaking in a few chocolates. I'm not even sure why but we were and it seemed to be helping. I'm thinking it was mostly psychological but according to this (click here) and this (click here), dark chocolate does help an upset G.I. tract due to bacteria. I think we all probably know that dark chocolate has some great healthy affects when eaten (in moderation of course) but I didn't realize this until we could see it working.  

I ate bags and bags of Dove chocolate while pregnant with all of my babies and I just knew it was one of the reasons why they were all very happy babies. Now, although I still love my dove chocolate, I don't eat bags at a time. I love a few chocolates with a glass of Santa Ema Merlot just before going to bed. It soothes me, I believe. I think its as soothing as the warm milk my grandmother, Ginny, used to give me when I'd wake up in the middle of the night.  What a special memory that is for me. 

So, the virus is gone now and most of the sanitizing is done but we still have our chocolates and will continue to have a healthy supply of them should this ever happen again......or just because we'd like a treat. We'll consider it a better option than taking a tums every night.