Cough, cough! Honey, dark chocolate and coughing

It's been a little while since I posted. I've been busy nursing a virus I caught which made me cough all night long for ten days or so. Anyone who has chatted to me long enough will know that while I eat a pretty nutrient dense diet, I am generally tremendously sleep deprived. It's not really down to choice - I work hard at home and at work, and have two small children (2.5 and 5.5) who were totally normal, breastfed babies...in other words, they woke to find Mummy at various times in the night through their babyhood and toddlerhood. My youngest is now finally making it through the night with one waking in general...so now I need to work harder at trying to get more sleep, somehow. Without sleep, our immune systems cannot work optimally. Sleep is vital for replenishment and it is one of the reasons us mothers get so completely worn down!

Being unwell gave me a good excuse to eat a ton of cocoa rich dark chocolate. One of cocoa's prime ingredients, theobromine, has been shown to be as effective as a cough suppressant as codeine, without the side effect of drowsiness. I am not sure how much it helped my cough, but it is yummy, and a good antioxidant - all important for recovery from inflammatory processes, chronic or acute.

I also finished two jars of incredibly tasty orange blossom honey. Honey has also been shown to be as effective in suppressing coughs as dextromethorpan (the usual ingredient in over the counter formulations). Tastier, cheaper and more natural - I go with the honey (my favourite match for it is antioxidant rich white tea). So being unwell wasn't all bad :-)

This picture made me giggle! Have a good week everyone!