The Happiness Secret Ingredient: Chocolate Milk

A True Life Story of Transformation

by Jordan Myska Allen, a lover of life and entrepreneur. He acts as a psychological, spiritual, and professional consultant and practices applied integral thinking.

I was feeling a general malaise a few minutes ago, lying on the love seat in my room—which is far too small for me to lie upon—strumming the guitar and singing sad lullabies. It was a perfectly restful discomfort, knowing that I needed to get another article written (this one), knowing that I needed to meditate and go to sleep soon to start a full day tomorrow, and yet not feeling the inspiration. But I’m no longer feeling that. 

Now I’m feeling energized, excited, and I’m typing so fast that I have to keep going back to fix typos! What’s my secret? 

I slumped off the couch and trudged into the kitchen on my way to the computer, pausing at the fridge. I open the door, and the secret ingredients were staring right at me: a carton of Almond Milk right next to a bottle of chocolate sauce.

Chocolate Milk!

That’s right, today’s hot-off-the-presses happiness secret that most of us who grew up in America have known since we’ve been old enough to digest solid foods: Drink a glass of chocolate milk. Hell as far as I know it’s a universal human thing—my Ghanaian friends and I drank Milo (a sort of chocolate water “health” drink), every morning. 

Try typing “Chocolate Milk” into Google, and you’ll see scores of articles on WebMD, Men’s Health, Fitness Magazine, even Fox News talking about health benefits of the drink, referencing scholarly articles in scientific journals. We don’t want to get too carried away—water is probably the best thing after exercise—but water wasn’t going to get me psychologically pumped for composing this here gem. True, there’s a lot of sugar in the chocolate sauce, but I’m not suggesting a nightly habit of chocolate milk consumption. I just got a jolt of happiness from my own experience of chocolate (almond) milk, and felt compelled to share that happiness with you. 

Bonus:

In an October 2012 article in the New England Journal of Medicine a loose relationship was established between the countries with the highest chocolate intake and the number of Nobel Prize winners. The study concludes that “Chocolate consumption enhances cognitive function, which is a sine qua non for winning the Nobel Prize…” Due to the limitations of the study design, the author warns that there has been no clear cause-and-effect established by the research.

Image: Some rights reserved by FnJBnN

Category: Body

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