The Chocolate as Brain Food

For you fans of chocolate or Chocoholics, will definitely have a new reason for more frequent enjoy his favorite dish after reading this one. In one recent study says, chocolate is very good to keep the brain healthy and sharp function, even to delay or slow down diseases such as Alzheimer's.

A Harvard researchers found that drinking two cups of hot chocolate every day can help parents keep their brains healthy and have a strong ability to think.

"We learn more about the blood flow in the brain and its effect on the ability to think," said Farzaneh A Sorond of Harvard Medical School and neurologist at Boston.

"Being in a different area, the brain needs more energy to complete the task, and the brain also require greater blood flow. Relationship is called neurovascular coupling, which plays an important role in diseases such as Alzheimer's."

In this research, analyze Sorond about 60 people were on average 73 years old and do not have dementia.

Over a period of 30 days, Sorond asked the volunteers drank two cups of hot chocolate every day. Meanwhile, they also abstain from consuming any form of chocolate during that time.

The study participants did not drink the same type of cacao. Most of them consume hot chocolate are enhanced with an additional amount of flavanol antioxidants (usually found in cocoa and tea and some fruits and vegetables). Partly consumed cocoa with much smaller amounts of antioxidants added.

After performing memory tests and ultrasound to measure the amount of blood flow to the brain and memory, Sorond found no difference in outcome of the increased amount of flavanols in between the two groups.

Approximately 18 participants who showed signs of impaired blood flow to the brain at baseline, after 30 days showed 8.3 percent increase blood flow to their brains work area. Their memory performance also increased from 167 seconds to 116 seconds.

Approximately 24 participants performed MRI brain scans to see if there are small areas of brain damage. The results are expressed, they are reduced blood flow allows having small areas of brain damage.

"The next job is to prove the link between cocoa, blood flow problems, and cognitive decline," said Paul B Rosenberg of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore who wrote an editorial this study. "But, this is the first important step that can guide future research."