Chocolate may boost cognitive skills within hours

If you love chomping on a chocolate bar to get an energy boost, keep doing it and don’t let guilty feelings envelop you. A new study has revealed that chocolate not only boosts energy it may also improve your cognitive skills within a few hours of eating it.

A team of researchers from Italy found that flavanols, found in cocoa, enhances cognition such as memory, visual processing speed, and also help fight back different types of mental deteriorations, especially in older adults. The researchers also found that daily consumption of cocoa for a prolonged period of time may shield against cognitive impairment. [Read more Eating turmeric, red grapes, apple peels could help ‘starve’ prostate cancer cells]

The researchers attribute chocolate’s healthful benefits to cocoa bean, the main ingredient of chocolate and an abundant source of flavanols - a type of natural compounds known to possess neuroprotective effects.

Flavanols are a group of compounds found in cocoa, apples, tea, and a number of other plant-based foods and beverages.

A growing body of evidence suggest that a flavanol-rich diet can have a beneficial effect on cardiovascular health.

Several previous studies also pointed to cocoa flavanols’ positive impact on cognitive health.

In this study, older adults who regularly consumed cocoa flavanols had improvements in cognition, attention, working memory, and visual processing speed. [Read more Drinking coffee daily may lead to a longer life, new study shows]

"This result suggests the potential of cocoa flavanols to protect cognition in vulnerable populations over time by improving cognitive performance," says Valentina Socci, of the University of L'Aquila in Italy.

Socci and colleagues recently published their review in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition. They discussed in detail what changes take place in your brain up to a few hours after you consume cocoa flavanols, and what happens when you continue such diet for an extended period of time?

Although a handful of randomized controlled trials have investigated the acute effect of cocoa flavanols, most of them suggest their favorable effect on cognitive performance. The participants, after consuming cocoa flavanols, displayed improvements in working memory performance and enhanced processing abilities of visual information. [Read more Extra virgin olive oil may prevent dementia and memory loss]

 

In women, after a night of complete sleep deprivation, cocoa was found to thwart the cognitive impairment they suffered due to sleeplessness. This brings promising results for people who suffer from chronic insomnia or work shifts.

Past studies have shown that there is a link between cocoa flavanol intake and better cognition. Those studies often adduced dark chocolate as the best source of flavanols.

For this new study, the researchers wanted to conduct a deeper probe into the cocoa flavanols’ benefits on brain. They sought to find out what particular cognitive functions are affected by flavanols and if the effects are immediate. To find answers to these questions, the team decided to conduct an in-depth review of existing studies which examined the cocoa flavanols’ effects on cognition.

Specifically, the researchers investigated how cocoa flavanols affect cognitive functioning over time and within hours of consumption. [Read more Coffee may lower risk of early death]

How chocolate may boost cognitive skills

The researchers brought to light evidence of an association between eating cocoa flavanols and almost immediate boosts in working memory. In one study, the team found young adults experienced memory enhancements only two hours after eating 773 milligrams of cocoa flavanols.

Another study showed that cocoa flavanol intake appeared to neutralize cognitive decline caused by a night of sleep deprivation.

The researchers found that the bulk of the studies investigating long-term effects of cocoa flavanol consumption on cognitive function were conducted on elderly adults. These adults showed improvement in their cognitive performance after daily consumption of cocoa flavanols (for a minimum of 5 days and up to 3 months). Largely affected were factors such as attention, working memory, processing speed, and verbal fluency. [Read more Top 10 Natural Foods to Boost Your Energy]

More surprising was the fact that these effects were strongest in elderly adults who already had mild cognitive impairment or other memory declines at the study onset.

"If you look at the underlying mechanism, the cocoa flavanols have beneficial effects for cardiovascular health and can increase cerebral blood volume in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus," they continue. "This structure is particularly affected by aging and therefore the potential source of age-related memory decline in humans,” say Socci and colleagues.

"Regular intake of cocoa and chocolate could indeed provide beneficial effects on cognitive functioning over time."

However, the researchers warn that people should avoid eating too much chocolate due to its high sugar and calorie count. Still, they say:

"Dark chocolate is a rich source of flavanols. So we always eat some dark chocolate. Every day."