Article by: Cecilia Amador
A wise woman once told me that dessert is the most important meal of the day. She also said this was only valid if chocolate was part of the dessert.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve followed the first part of the advice: I always eat dessert. As for chocolate, I’m just going to put this out there, everyone loves chocolate. If you say you don’t, you just haven’t found the right chocolate you like…or the right way to eat it.
I wish I could say I only crave chocolate when I’m either about to get my period or actually on my period. Unfortunately, I can’t. I crave chocolate fairly often, and about 90% of the time I give in to the craving, and it never fails to make me feel better. I mean it’s chocolate, unless it’s over 85% cacao…what’s not to love?
On a serious note though, it’s quite a known fact that along with the moodiness of PMSing comes the craving of some sort of something. Half of the time we gals don’t even know what we’re craving, we just know there’s something in particular that we would like to get our hands on. For many women, this something is chocolate. It’s quite simple: there’s something about chocolate that makes our periods more bearable and slightly enjoyable. Many studies suggest it’s the calcium, the iron, or the serotonin levels found in cacao that make it a prevalent food to crave during the days of or the days prior to our periods. Regardless of the reason, I know that I typically find myself eating brownies or brownie batter, buying chocolate, or reaching into my baby sister’s secret stash.
There’s a catch though. It’s not just simply eating chocolate and gobbling up that bar in one sitting. It’s taken countless times of self-guilt and years of experience to realize that it’s not the how much, but the how of eating the chocolate that does the trick—at least for me. No one has ever been able to describe the proper and most satisfying way to eat a chocolate better than Steven Fry in the first few minutes of this video (before minute 1). Basically, this is what he says: chocolate is not meant to be bitten; it’s meant to be sucked.
Now I know what you’re all thinking. But let’s keep this to chocolate only. Fry has a point. When you place a square of chocolate on your tongue and just let it sit there, maybe flipping it upside-down every now and then, while your mouth goes through the normal process of salivating, you will be able to feel the chocolate melt in your mouth and leave tiny traces of heaven inside it as it releases the something that your body was craving. It’s so satisfying to slowly suck chocolate that it even leaves a chocolatey texture and flavor in your tongue afterwards that gives you extra seconds of utter bliss and satisfaction.
I guess what I’m trying to say here is, don’t suppress the craving, give in, but only slightly so that you remain in control. Sit back, cuddle up, and slowly delectate on the chocolate of your choosing.
