Long-term research shows that chocolate improves brain function.

In the mid-70s, psychologist Merrill Elias, with a group of colleagues, began to track the cognitive abilities of more than a thousand New Yorkers. The purpose of the Maine-Syracuse Longitudinal Study (MSLS) was quite specific: to determine the relationship between blood pressure and brain function.

Data collection continued for several decades, it included more and more new categories of data that can affect the cardiovascular system: obesity, smoking, etc. After 40 years, scientists decided to add questions about the diet. In the end, this factor also matters. No one suggested that the study would lead to any discovery related to chocolate. But it turned out that way.

During the sixth wave of data collection from 2001 to 2006 (a total of seven waves were conducted, each of five years), scientists collected detailed information about the diet. And an interesting thing turned out.

“We found that people who ate chocolate at least once a week tended to exhibit better mental abilities, ” Elias said . “This is a whole series of cognitive areas.”

The results of the study were published in February 2016. The researchers were assisted by nutritionist Georgina Crichton of the University of South Australia.



Various studies have previously shown the positive effect of chocolate on health, but few have studied its effect on mental abilities. A multi-year study of MSLS in a sample of about 1000 people is the largest and most reliable study that shows a positive correlation between chocolate intake and mental abilities.

To confirm, the sample was normalized taking into account age, education, cardiovascular factors, etc. After that, a positive correlation between chocolate intake and some cognitive abilities still persisted:

• visual spatial memory
• visual scanning and tracking,
• abstract thinking,
• brief scale for assessing mental status .

Crichton explains that these scientific terms correspond to the day-to-day tasks a person faces, such as remembering a phone number or a shopping list, or the ability to do two things at once, such as driving and talking.

In such tests, the most important problem is to establish a causal relationship. Maybe this is not chocolate that increases mental abilities, but rather - the load on the brain leads to the intake of more chocolate?

To test this hypothesis, scientists conducted another test. They took a group of 300 people who took part in the first four waves of the polls, as well as in the sixth wave, when the diet was studied. If mental abilities affected chocolate intake, the results from the first four waves would predict the increased chocolate intake of those people who showed the best test results. But this was not fixed.

“You can't talk about causality because it is almost impossible to prove in our format,” says Elias. - But we can talk about the direction. Our study definitely shows the direction that not cognitive abilities affect chocolate consumption, but chocolate consumption affects cognitive abilities. ”

Scientists are not yet ready to talk about the reasons for the positive effect of chocolate on the brain. Science only knows that cocoa and chocolate contain natural antioxidants called flavonoids . A 2011 study showed that flavonoids “positively influence psychological processes,” and a 2014 study showed that these substances “reduce some factors of age-related cognitive dysfunction.”

Chocolate, like coffee and tea, also contains methylxanthines , which improve various functions of the body, including increasing concentration. A number of scientific studies were conducted on this subject, for example, in 2004 and 2005 .

Nutrition experts say they are aware of an immediate positive effect after eating chocolate. But never before have long-term studies of the long-term effect been conducted. Now this fact can be considered confirmed.