Cocoa extract has cognitive benefits: new study

health

by Mark Lalanilla

If you love chocolate, check it out! Just in time for the holiday season, there's another victory to celebrate.

A new study shows that cocoa extract has cognitive benefits for older adults.

Previous research suggested that cocoa extract may have protective effects on brain health, but the results of some studies were weak or inconsistent.

A new study suggests that a cocoa extract supplement containing 500 mg of cocoa flavanols per day has cognitive benefits for older adults.

the study, Published today in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition The study, conducted by researchers at Massachusetts General Brigham, involved 573 older adults who underwent detailed face-to-face cognitive testing.

This effect was seen among older adults who had a poor diet at the time of study enrollment. However, the cognitive benefits were not significant among participants who were already eating a healthy diet.

There is one caveat. Don't try to get 500 mg of cocoa flavanols per day from chocolate. To get this much cocoa flavanols, you would need to eat about 600 calories worth of dark chocolate. According to Consumer Reports.

That's nearly a third of the 2,000 daily recommended calories for adult women, and consuming this much dark chocolate can lead to weight gain and nutrient deficiencies (as well as making you bored with chocolate).

Instead, try other foods rich in flavanols, such as tea, citrus fruits and juices, berries, red wine, apples, beans, and other legumes.

This study is one of the results of a large, long-term research effort known as COSMOS (Cocoa Supplements and Multivitamins Outcomes Study).

COSMOS is a clinical trial led by Brigham and Women's Hospital and partially funded by Mars, the maker of Snickers and other chocolate candies. More than 21,000 older women and men across the United States enrolled in her COSMOS and participated in the cocoa extract study.

In case you missed the news, chocolate and cocoa have been reported in numerous studies to have potential health benefits.

It may help people suffering from multiple sclerosis, according to a 2019 study, which found that when MS patients drank a high-flavonoid cocoa drink, they were 45% more alert and even walked faster by 80%. There was found.

And researchers at Penn State University have confirmed that cocoa powder is a potential wonder drug for the health of people suffering from obesity-related liver damage, according to experiments conducted on mice fed a high-fat diet.

A previous study compared the “mental energy” effects of four different hot drinks. One is cocoa, one is caffeine, one is a combination of the two, and the last is a placebo.

Each day, participants were asked to drink one of four drinks and complete a “mental energy test.” Those who drank the caffeine and cocoa mixture had higher accuracy than those who drank the cocoa drink.

Studies have shown that along with improving concentration, cocoa reduces the “anxiety-inducing effects of caffeine.”

However, these results should be viewed with caution. Compared to the placebo group, those who only had caffeine in their drinks were more angry. Fortunately, consuming cocoa with caffeine reduced anxiety and diminished feelings of anger.