When you think of good health, consider me - CHOCOLATE Part one

If the tantalizing taste wasn't reason enough for you to go crazy over chocolate, then here is another one. A team of researchers in Rome discovered there is a clear link between ingestion of a pure element (cocoa flavonoids) found in chocolate and cocoa and improved cognitive brain function.

The research, which was published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition, indicates that consumption of the sweet stuff can make your brain function at higher level due to the aforementioned flavonoids.

Before you think that chocolate is going to make you the next Stephen Hawking, you'd best slow your run to the candy shop. The research isn't saying that eating chunks of chocolate make you an intellectual, but it does indicate that eating chocolate, especially dark chocolate, can have a positive effect on intellectual abilities, particularly for people who face cognitive challenges or those who are sleep deprived.

The Science

Italian researchers of the University of L'Aquila went through prior studies to learn what happens to one's brain after consuming compounds called flavanols (a class of flavanoids), found in chocolate and cocoa.

The study followed the eating habits and eventual impact on 460 people. The researchers discovered that the group who consumed measured amounts of cocoa had better adeptness on reasoning tests.

While the research is still at the preliminary stages, it does indicate obvious changes in attention, general cognition, working memory and processing speed for the group that ate chocolate over those in the study that did not. What's more, the flavanols were shown to improve usual mental functioning and exert a protective role on cardiovascular function impaired by insomnia.

By John Boitnott