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This article was originally published with the title Is Cocoa the Brain Drug of the Future?.

15 Comments

1. 1. jtdwyer 08:38 AM 2/28/13

   "A typical one and a half ounce chocolate bar might contain about 50 milligrams of flavanols, which means you would need to consume 10 to 20 bars daily to approach the flavanol levels used in the University of L'Aquila study. At that point, the sugars and fats in these sweet confections would probably outweigh any possible brain benefits."
   
   IMO, that's a matter of personal priorities...

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2. 2. Richieo 08:40 AM 2/28/13

   Hmmmm, 10 to 20 bars daily, I know a few people who do that and more and believe me, they are no Nobel Laureates but they do scare the crap out of any weighing machines they approach....

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3. 3. Traveler 007 in reply to jtdwyer 09:34 AM 2/28/13

   Could concentrate it into a kind of chocolate flavanol crack

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4. 4. Fanandala 09:59 AM 2/28/13

   This sounds like the start of another faddish food supplement and wonder pill.

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5. 5. SteveinOG 11:15 AM 2/28/13

   The fact that this study was done "...with scientists from Mars, Inc....", a purveyor of chocolate, means that the findings should be viewed with considerable skepticism.

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6. 6. jtdwyer in reply to Traveler 007 01:13 PM 2/28/13

   Yeah!

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7. 7. ewinters 07:51 PM 2/28/13

   Too good to be true. Who paid for this? Chocolate manufacturers?
   Put it in a capsule. Then we'll talk.

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8. 8. jtdwyer in reply to ewinters 08:05 PM 2/28/13

   I've got a bottle of Lipo-Flavonoid capsules - a dietary supplement that purportedly reduces tinnitus. I never noticed anything, except that it didn't satisfy like eating fudge, and I still had that 3 kHz ringing in my ears!

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9. 9. SigmaEyes 09:03 PM 2/28/13

   I tend to eat chocolate in binges, with a personal preference for dark chocolate. When I do indulge, I perhaps over-do it for several days or a week or more, but never have run into a weight issue from it.
   
   I never noticed any cognitive difference, up or down between binges. If anything, I get a little more emotional when on a binge. Is that intelligence blossoming? I buy name brands mostly. I don't know if the effect takes longer than my binges(the article states the study period was eight weeks), or if it is a processing/storage/shelf life thing. Can one buy raw coco at the supermarket?
   
   I would try it!

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10. 10. Carlos Solrac 10:12 PM 2/28/13

    Some spanish needed to understand this equation:
    
    Cocoa is to chocolate like coca is to caca.

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11. 11. Steven 11:14 PM 2/28/13

    It sounds like raw chocolate, but not processes is good for you.
    Another consideration is that the theobromine, which is an adenosine receptor similar to caffeine in coffee, could be having a beneficial effect. Caffeine is actually protective against Alzheimer disease, and apparently acts through the adenosine receptor, to reduce inflammation. Inflammation apparently occurs through excess adenosine, released when there is inflammation, so reducing inflammation by caffeine in coffee, and probably by theobromine, a similar chemical in cocoa.

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12. 12. jtdwyer in reply to SigmaEyes 03:51 PM 3/1/13

    Me, too. I know my Mom used to make wonderful chocolate fudge back in the 1950s using some kind of Hershey's unsweetened powder, in a can similar to their other powdered products. I don't know if it's still available or how close to raw or unprocessed cocoa it is...

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13. 13. davidhof 02:20 AM 3/4/13

    I suspect that causation runs the other way. The smarter a population is, the more likely its members are to appreciate the many benefits of chocolate ;).
    
    Seriously, while cocoa probably does not raise cognative ability, it may well have a counter-attention-deficit effect which allows brilliant but erratic individuals to temporarily achieve laser-like focus on the problem at hand. This could increase the Nobel-worthy output of themselves or their colleagues.

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14. 14. sunnystrobe in reply to jtdwyer 07:09 AM 3/6/13

    Unsweetened cocoa powder is the best-kept secret, as it's hidden amongst the baking ingredients in any supermarket!
    I mix it in with a freshly made herbal infusion, like mint, or lemon-scented myrtle, and it tastes very cocoa-lesque, Maya-style. (After all they didn't have cows, or cane sugar.)
    But for raw cocoa, there are those crunchy cocoa nibs that come in pouches, ready to scatter on our mocha ; we even do this in cafes now; it's our theobromine medication!

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15. 15. gloriosa 06:32 PM 3/6/13

    Cocoa is available but you may miss the sweet...it's bitter and the creaminess unless you add that also. I strongly disagree with the spanish analogy.

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