Attention! We have some great news for you. Well, we do just in case you are mad about chocolate and all kinds of sweet treats. As you already know, dark chocolate is believed to boost people’s cardiovascular health, but based on some research studies, it also helps in keeping our brain in perfect shape. Isn’t this great?
Now, if you feared that you eat too much chocolate, fear not. The researchers at the University of L’Aquila state how the regular (every day) consumption of cocoa-flavored sweets will help you with your memory, your processing speed, and your verbal fluency. Doesn’t this make you go grab a brownie or a freshly baked muffin?
However, the best part about eating cocoa and chocolate is that it helps individuals who are in memory decline or face other mild cognitive impairments.
“Regular intake of cocoa and chocolate could indeed provide beneficial effects on cognitive functioning over time,”
said review authors Valentina Socci and Michele Ferrara.
This means cocoa affects the brain in a way that is keeps it healthy and improves the cognitive performance in vulnerable population.
“If you look at the underlying mechanism, the cocoa flavanols have beneficial effects for cardiovascular health and can increase cerebral blood volume in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus,” Socci explains.
“This structure is particularly affected by aging and therefore the potential source of age-related memory decline in humans.”
Plus, it has been proven how those who eat cocoa flavored products regularly do better on demanding cognitive tests.
Now this all sounds good, but it makes you think whether you would risk getting fat all for the sake for a healthier heart and brain if you decide to eat sweets every day. Actually, it makes us ponder on how much chocolate is enough.
“There are potential side effects of eating cocoa and chocolate,” Socci says.
“Those are generally linked to the caloric value of chocolate, some inherent chemical compounds of the cocoa plant such as caffeine and theobromine, and a variety of additives we add to chocolate such as sugar or milk.”
So, we would conclude that it’s not really about how much sweets you eat, but what do you opt for. Just try to limit those chocolates with added sugars or other ingredients that can make you gain weight and always choose dark chocolate over other sugary things.
What about you? How much chocolate do you eat in a day?