Fun fact: I love chocolate milk.
Okay, maybe that’s not really a fun fact. But you know what is?
Chocolate milk used to be sold as medicine. Kind of.
Irish physician Sir Hans Sloane—who is credited by some historians with inventing the milk and cocoa mixture in the early 1700s—brought the drink from Jamaica (where it was probably actually invented, if not even way before then in Mesoamerica) to England. It was then manufactured and sold as a health beverage throughout Europe.
What were its healthy medical benefits? Mostly just essential nutrients and vitamins, such as calcium, protein and vitamin D, that we all know to be in chocolate milk today. These are good things, yes. The added sugar? Not so much. But overall, chocolate milk ain’t so bad.
So, drink up? Sure. But maybe not as medicine. And definitely not by the carton-full (this is actually a real struggle of mine—but I’m trying).
Everything in moderation, as they say.