To use Hot Chocolate as my main drink instead of coffee?

@Ilovecakey If want a hot drink, why would I drink something cold?! Most people drink hot tea and coffee, not cold. It's the same for me with water.

I don't like fruit tea, it's like drink pot pouri. Never burnt my mouth, and besides, after two decades of drinking boiled hot water, my mouth is pretty best much asbestos. I do drink cold water but prefer hot. Indeed, one of the hardest things about undergoing chemotherapy was I found drinking anything hot intolerable.

You drink freshly boiled water? Doesn't it burn your mouth? Why just water and not a fruit tea or something? I always drink water but couldn't drink it hot

Exactly, good point - and even if it is sleep deprivation we can sympathise with it AND tell her that drinking that amount of hot chocolate is massively unhealthy and will not help with her sleep issues in the long terms since she did ask AIBU 😆🤦🏽‍♀️

Thanks, @ForeverDelayedEpiphany . I think I always choose cocoa without any additional ingredients, so I guess that the key difference is between roasted and unroasted beans. I'm sure that the less processing the beans are subject to the better, so I probably would choose the brands that call the powder 'cacao' if they didn't mark the price up sooo much - and if they didn't represent their product almost as if it was a health supplement rather than a variation on good old cocoa powder!
I think that cocoa/cacao are very healthful indeed, when not mixed with sugar. Plus of course they keep the Dementors at bay! (Or do they -- do you have to have actual bars of chocolate to recover from exposure to Dementors? Are you around to confirm, JKR??)

She didn't mention sleep deprivation anywhere @IamnotwhouthinkIam
Why are people making things up?

They both seem to want hot drinks to keep them alert, so why is DH supposed to be sympathising with her about an issue she doesn't say that she has? You seen to be just looking for a reason to blame the man.

I drink a mix of Costa hot chocolates, hot chocolates from other coffee shops.
You must be spending loads on these drinks, what a waste of money.

These coffee threads are the oddest trolling I’ve ever seen.

“And I (and many others) are merely
stating the facts by letting her know it’s way too much sugar and people have suggested some healthier less harmful alternatives”

And my “sensible” opinion is that she ignores her DH (or any mumnetters) who is focusing on the fact she is consuming more hot chocolate/sugar than is ideal, rather than helping her to get more sleep which imo is where the real issue lies.

I’m sure the OP is smart enough to realise that drinking multiple commercial hot chocolates will mean she is consuming a lot of sugar and doesnt need the obvious pointed out to her.

She was asking if she was unreasonable to drink a lot of hot chocolate instead of coffee (which she doesn’t like) for her sleep deprivation. It sounds like she isn’t getting much sympathy or help for her sleep issues from her DH (or indeed some of the posts on here), so in my opinion she is not being unreasonable to do what she needs to do to keep going for her child/s sake till such time as she is able to get more sleep 🤷‍♀️

Have you tried the salted caramel teabags in aldi ?
I know you said you don't like tea but you may like this one because of the sweet flavour.

It sounds like the drinks you are choosing are high in calories and sugar and therefore I wouldn't personally drink them so frequently myself. I love the occasional hot chocolate but it is a treat drink. I'm an obese woman addicted to sugar, I am making an effort to lose weight but even when I wasn't I would say this was too much. Could you switch to tea? I like biscuit tea it tastes like malted milk biscuits!

Full of sugar then I reckon. I’m enjoying this made into hot choc with water or milk for a protein hit 👍

https://www.willpowders.com/collections/protein-powder/products/milk-chocolate-protein-powder-500g

I would have been furious with anyone who’d tried to lecture me on mumsnet about having too many hot chocolates or chocolate bars or whatever I needed to get through the day on an hour or two’s sleep 😡.

Really? The OP has came on here asking the question on AIBU of all things. It’s not like people are randomly “lecturing” a stranger in the street about drinking too much hot chocolate or MNetters are picking at something she said in a post which happened to mention her hot choc consumption in passing. She is specifically putting it out there as a topic for discussion and actively seeking (sensible) opinions and advice on this.

And I (and many others) are merely
stating the facts by letting her know it’s way too much sugar and people have suggested some healthier less harmful alternatives.

I went through a period of sleep deprivation which lead to me consuming way too much sugar to help me stay awake and in the long term I felt awful, developed aches and pains, had worse quality sleep and it didn’t do my weight any favours - I became the heaviest I’d ever been. I get that it happens and have sympathy for anyone struggling with sleep deprivation, but again OP did ask for opinions/advice and I know that it is harmful and counter productive in the long term.

@DayInTheLifeOfaMum is going to come back and tell us she's a size 8 . 😬

Admittedly I’d missed that OP had said “at work”, so it’s likely that her baby is at least slightly older (and therefore possibly not breastfeeding or awake constantly overnight).

But when I was the single mum of a newborn who had colic and reflux and demanded to be fed every two hours day and night (and couldn’t latch properly either so I was pumping on top of using bottles) , I would have been furious with anyone who’d tried to lecture me on mumsnet about having too many hot chocolates or chocolate bars or whatever I needed to get through the day on an hour or two’s sleep 😡.

Particularly as in my case I’d previously lost nearly 10 stone through diet (and have kept it off over the years too, I just happen to still be slightly overweight - due to PCOS). Just because someone understands healthy eating, doesn’t mean they are in a mental place at that current moment to do it- especially if OP is right in the thick of it with a young child and sleep deprived.

I reiterate, you do what you need to do to manage OP - eventually things will change and you can work on a healthier lifestyle then

I bought some options the other day..it really is ghastly! Cadbury is better

If I drank hot chocolate the way I drink coffee I'd be the size of a small house.

@DayInTheLifeOfaMum I am your people.I can skull an espresso for medicinal purposes but not as a pleasurable drink and I am also incredibly sensitive to caffine/stimlants so a normal 2 shot coffee is like crack to me. I had a decaf at 7.30 this morning and did the Sudoku in under 6 mins (yesterday it took me 19).

I can't stand the smell or taste of tea especially milky tea on someones breath. The only tea I have been able to tolerate is lemon and ginger from Twinnings. All that chocolate tea bollocks tastes just as disgusting, and lemon in hot water tastes like dish soap.

Hot chocolate is fine, but it is a lot of calories, especially 3-4 times a day. You can reduce this by have semi-skimmed or skimmed milk, but as HC automatically has sugar in it it wouldn't be advisable long term. I did manage to drink cacao (kak-kow) which has a different stimulant in it and that was fine, but it is very expensive.

It depeneds why you are having it, is it the comfort of a hot drink (hot squash can be a good choice if you have a sweet tooth) or is it the chocolate craving which I completely understand?

When I want a hot drink, but no more tea or coffee, I have hot water with lemon

It’s making you feel more alert because it’s packed with sugar! Not a good idea IMO.

😂

There’s nothing inherently wrong with it, but I would be mindful of the impact of the quantity of sugar. Drinking sugary beverages throughout the day can be very hard on the teeth, so brush and floss regularly (but not within thirty minutes of finishing a sugary drink). It would also be worth eating something high in protein alongside the drinks to help keep your blood sugar regular.

Finally, if calories are something you track or are concerned about, just bear in mind that certain hot chocolates can be high in calories. A regular costa hot chocolate is 360 calories, so one of those a day is 2,520 calories a week. If you’re drinking them on top of your normal calorie intake through food, it may affect your weight.

Can't see if anyone else has said this but they a teaspoon of hot sauce every 15 minutes instead, it's supposed to be more effective than coffee.

For the same reason some breastfeeding mums go organic, limit caffeine or eat super healthily eg. few UPF’s (or go lactose or gluten free etc if they suspect baby could have an allergy). Afaik we can’t be 100 per cent about what in our diet gets through in breast milk so equally some mums prefer a lower sugar diet.

Personally I couldn’t manage it as I was so sleep deprived that I needed my dark chocolate! But I still tried to be mindful and not eat the 3 or 4 small bars I really wanted and just limit it to 1 or 2. Wasn’t always successful though 🤣 (and didn’t even consider limiting processed food or making the effort to go organic for the same reason).

It depends on the sugar, cream, and overall calorie content of your hot chocolate just like coffee.
A mocha coffee is just half coffee and half hot chocolate. You could try one of those.

But if you aren’t overweight like me or breastfeeding (and so needing to watch your caffeine/sugar limit with multiple cups), then you do you! Hot chocolate isn’t much different to coffee if you load that with cream, syrups, sugar etc imo . I’m assuming your DH is the sophisticated “Black Coffee only” type (preferably of single origin beans, made fresh in a proper French press). We just aren’t sophisticated enough!🤣

I think this is awful advice. Multiple people on this thread have posted the sugar content and calories of coffee shop hot chocolate. It’s clear that If Op isn’t overweight she could easily become overweight if she keeps going like this and also weight isn’t the only metric of health. Having a super high sugar intake is still unhealthy in the long term whether you’re overweight or not.

Again to the people saying it’s no different from caramel lattes etc, I don’t think it’s that common for people to have multiple Starbucks sweetened lattes every day but if they do that is similarly unhealthy.

I don’t know what her husbands angle on it is but the point most on this thread are making is not about black coffee being more “sophisticated”, it’s about the fact it’s far less sugary/unhealthy/fattening compared to 3 hot chocolates.