It’s official, chocolate is the new brain food! Eating cocoa and chocolate as part of your diet can enhance your brain’s cognitive performance, study says.
According to a recent study review by authors Valentina Socci and Michele Ferrara of Italy, the flavanoids in cocoa are found to be rich with antioxidants and iron. Participants who included chocolate in their diet for a prolonged period of time have been identified to have better memory and are able to retain visual information quicker and longer.
Their findings, published in a health journal, Frontiers in Nutrition supports evidence that cocoa flavanols are catalysts for inhibiting memory deterioration conditions like dementia in older people.
Continuous chocolate consumption can enhance the brain’s cognitive capacity.
Having a quick chocolate snack before taking a difficult test also proves to boost the brain’s processing ability which results in better test outcomes.
For sustained benefits, one should opt for dark chocolate instead of the regular milk chocolate or white chocolate.
Talking about practicing what they preach, Valentina and Socci add, “Dark chocolate is a rich source of flavanols. So we always eat some dark chocolate. Every day.”
Though the component is also found in a few other types of food, they are packed in abundance in dark chocolate especially.
Daily intake of 150-200 calories of chocolate will ensure you a healthy heart as it helps increase the blood flow throughout your body, especially to your brain. This, in turn, is said to slow down the rate of aging.
In addition to these amazing benefits, chocolate also helps to cut down your cravings. The sugar content keeps you full until your next big meal.
Now, nobody can give you the ‘death stare’ when you choose chocolate over greens at the grocery. If they do, just show them this article.
Credit: Oprah Mag / Science Daily
