If you tend to guzzle chocolate and pain killers when you have your period, or any day (no judgment – same) a Swiss chocolatier has created something you might be interested in.
Marc Widmer, of Lucerne-based company Chocolate With Love, claims to have created a chocolate bar that can help to relieve period pain. The “Frauenmond” bar, which translates to “women’s moon” – gross – claims to contain more than 17 different Swiss mountain herbs that can alleviate menstrual pain.
“We want to make the menstruation days of women more comfortable,” Widmer said in an interview with 20 Minuten. He also felt the need to include that “of course men can also eat the chocolate. I myself have already tried [it].” I’m not sure why he would add that. Maybe a man at 20 Minuten tried the?Frauenmond bar and was concerned he might spontaneously grow a vagina.
?According to The Independent, the health benefits arise from interactions with the herbs and molecules in the chocolate to produce a calming effect on the body.
If you tend to crave chocolate before your period, according to The Telegraph, researchers from the National Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology in Tunisia have discovered that food cravings before menstruation are triggered by fluctuating hormone levels.?The level of serotonin, a chemical that is responsible for mood balance, can sometimes dip before menstruation, so we look for foods that will make us feel better, such as carbohydrates, which are known to promote serotonin release.
If you needed more reason to believe chocolate makes you feel good, there was also a study done to prove that chocolate actually makes you feel good. According to Science Focus, a study in the Journal Of Psychopharmacology found people who had a 42g dark chocolate drink a day felt more content than people who did not. Junee Sangani, a dietitian and spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association, explains why: ?The improvement in mood that people can get from eating chocolate comes from the release of serotonin and endorphins – the feel-good chemicals – in the brain.? Happy days.
