A new study has revealed that consumption of chocolate is positively associated with cognitive brain function.
The study, published in the journal Appetite, measured the dietary intake, cognitive function, and cardiovascular risk factors of 968 people between the ages of 23 and 98.
It concluded that the regular consumption of chocolate had a significant positive effect on cognitive function.
Habitual eating of chocolate was “significantly associated with better performance on [cognitive tests including] visual-spatial memory and [organization], working memory, scanning and tracking, abstract reasoning, and the mini-mental state examination.”
The researchers concluded that he reason for chocolate’s positive effects on the brain are due to the cocoa flavanols found inside the sweet treat.
Dark chocolate has the highest levels of flavanols, while milk and white chocolate have significantly fewer.
The research also found that flavonols’s positive association with cognitive function may also protect against regular cognitive decline due to aging.