Eating chocolate might make you smarter

Research published in the journal Appetite showed that people who regularly eat chocolate perform better in cognitive tests

Researchers came to this conclusion by looking at data collected from a Maine-Syracuse Longitudinal Study (MSLS) where 968 people were analysed for dietary intake and cardiovascular risk factors, as well as cognitive function. The people were aged between 23 and 98 years. The results showed that regularly eating chocolate was significantly associated with better cognitive function “irrespective of other dietary habits”.

Specifically, the study showed that regular chocolate consumption was “significantly associated with better performance on [cognitive tests including] visual-spatial memory and organisation, working memory, scanning and tracking, abstract reasoning, and the mini-mental state examination”.

It’s the flavonols (antioxidants) in chocolate that are thought to be responsible for these benefits. The darker the chocolate, the more flavonols it contains. Milk can impair the absorption of flavonols, therefore dairy free chocolate is preferable. Usually very dark chocolate (85 or 90 percent cocoa) contains only a very small amount of sugar, therefore consuming two squares a day provides an insignificant level of sugar that would not lead to negative health outcomes. Alternatively chocolate sweetened with stevia, xylitol and other natural sweeteners is increasingly available.

Reference