Cocoa and chocolate good for cognitive ability.

Cocoa and chocolate good for cognitive ability. This is another reason to be guilt-free when you get a treat of dark chocolate.Cocoa can be seen as a dietary supplement to protect human cognition and can counteract different types of cognitive decline according to new research. A recent review published in Frontiers in Nutrition, Italian researchers examined the available literature for the effects of acute and chronic administration of cocoa flavanols on different cognitive domains. This means what happens to your brain up to a few hours after you eat cocoa flavanols, and what happens when such a level of cocoa flavanol enriched diet for a prolonged period of time. The result showed, among others, enhancements in working memory performance and improved visual information processing in participants after having had cocoa flavanols. In women, eating cocoa after a night of total sleep deprivation actually counteracted the cognitive impairment which is less accuracy in performing tasks that such a night brings,this is a Plus for people that suffer from chronic sleep deprivation or work shifts. The effects of relatively long-term ingestion of cocoa flavanols (ranging from 5 days up to 3 months) has generally been investigated in elderly individuals. It turns out that for them cognitive performance was improved by a daily intake of cocoa flavanols. Factors such as attention, processing speed, working memory, and verbal fluency were greatly affected. These effects were, however, most pronounced in older adults with a starting memory decline or other mild cognitive impairments. The result suggests the potential of cocoa flavanols to protect cognition in vulnerable populations over time by improving cognitive performance. The cocoa flavanols have beneficial effects for cardiovascular health and can increase cerebral blood volume in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus, which is particularly affected by aging and therefore the potential source of age-related memory decline in humans.