Can Eating More Chocolate Be Good for Your Brain?

Are you a chocolate lover? If you are, we have good news for you. A new study has found that eating chocolate regularly may help improve mental skills.

Researchers say that people who ate chocolate once a week did better on brain performance tests than those who did not eat any chocolate. The tests included tests of verbal memory, scanning and tracking, visual-spatial memory, organization and abstract reasoning.

What’s responsible for chocolate’s brain-boosting properties?

Researchers speculate that the flavonoids in chocolate may be partially responsible because they protect against the normal mental decline that happens as people age. In addition, other compounds like caffeine and theobromine are also associated with improving alertness and mental skills.

So should you start eating more chocolate?

The study’s lead researcher says that those who choose to include more chocolate in their diet should do so under the care of their physician, who can take important factors like diet, lifestyle, and medical issues into consideration.