Chocolate has constantly been the center of popular health media articles for helping you lose weight, live longer, and even preventing diabetes. I cannot say for certain about those articles, but now there is a new article regarding the common guilty pleasure of many people across the world.
Articles published by both the Washington Post and (republished) by The Independent (UK) claim that chocolate has now been linked to increasing brain function. Is this just another scam? Should we now let kids eat all the chocolate they want? Should we go clean out the grocery shelves of all things chocolate?
The article goes on to explain this theory a little further. They first look back to a study completed in the mid1970’s by a psychologist named Merrill Elias. The purpose of the original study was to “observe a relationship between people’s blood pressure and brain performance.”1 Who knew, a study from so long ago, with a completely different goal, would now steer us in the direction of eating more chocolate!
Recently, Georgina Crichton, a Nutrition researcher from Australia, analyzed the data from the previous study to determine the effects that habitual chocolate consumption has on the brain. To explain it simply, the researchers have found a positive correlation between those who eat chocolate regularly (at least once a week) and increased ability to complete everyday tasks, and even multitasking. They proposed that this is most likely because chocolate has both cocoa flavanols and methlxanthines both of which can have positive impacts on the old noggin, including increasing blood flow to the brain and enhancing concentration levels respectively.
So back to my original question, do we go clean out the grocery shelves of chocolate in hopes of becoming as smart as we can? Not quite yet. Even Crichton notes, there is more research to be done on this topic, especially on the multiple different kinds/forms of chocolate out there. So, for those of you who eat chocolate along with a well balanced diet and exercise, you can continue living your life as you are. For those of you, like myself, who are not huge fans of the new possible brain food, maybe we should give it a try every now and then.
- http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/chocolate-makes-you-cleverer-a-40-year-psychological-study-proves-that-the-sweet-treat-can-boost-our-a6917736.html
- http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666316300459