My mantra in life is “A balanced diet is one choco bar in each hand” (considering the fact that I am a borderline chocoholic). Literally nothing can make you happier in life than chocolate. It is a life saver, hunger manager, your portal to all of the worlds’ happiness, among so many other things.
Now, like I needed another excuse to gobble up all the chocolate within a 5 mile radius, scientists have confirmed that these delicious treats actually boost brain power.
In a recent study published by scientists Valentina Socci and Michele Ferrara from the University of L’Aquila in Italy, they examined the effects of acute and chronic administration of cocoa flavanols on different cognitive domains.
When numerable preexisting data pertaining to this investigation were analyzed, enhancements in working memory performance and improved visual information processing after having had cocoa flavanols were found. And for women, eating cocoa after a night of total sleep deprivation actually counteracted the cognitive impairment that such a night generally brings about. Promising results for people who suffer from chronic sleep deprivation or work shifts was also discovered.
The effects of relatively long-term ingestion of cocoa flavanols (ranging from 5 days up to 3
months) which was studied in elderly individuals produced data that signaled improved cognitive performance and factors such as attention, processing speed, working memory, and verbal fluency were greatly affected.“This result suggests the potential of cocoa flavanols to protect cognition in vulnerable populations over time by improving cognitive performance. 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. This structure is particularly affected by aging and therefore the potential source of age-related memory decline in humans.” Said the authors.
Now, you might want to look at some delicious chocolate cake recipes- an area in which I no longer can offer my expertise, unfortunately. Although I would be glad to tutor you on how to finish one off.
