Chocolate is good for you!
What all chocoholics what to hear .. Chocolate is good for you … in moderation!
A new Italian study by Dr Giovambattista Desideri at the University of L’Aquila in Italy has found that people who eat Cocoa products like dark chocolate and cocoa drinks like hot chocolate had better memories, higher scores in reasoning tests and improved blood control over those people who did not.
Dr Desideri said “This study provides encouraging evidence that consuming cocoa flavanols as part of a calorie controlled diet could improve cognitive functions”. He also said “Given the global rise in cognitive disorders which have a true impact on individual’s quality of life, the role of cocoa flavanols in preventing or slowing the progression of mild cognitive impairment or dementia warrants further research” Flavanols are an antioxidant which is also found in fruits and vegetables like grapes berries and apples plus drinks like tea and red wine.
They have been shown to help in cancer prevention, heart disease and the ageing process by protecting cells. Researchers at the University of L’Aquila studied 90 older people with mild cognitive impairment, a condition that often progresses to dementia. Participants were given 990mg, 520mg or 45mg of a dairy-based cocoa flavanol drink for eight weeks and underwent neuro-psychological tests. The researchers found that high and medium levels of flavanols were associated with higher cognitive scores than low levels. He added” Larger Studies are needed to validate the findings and figure out how long the positive effects will last and determine the levels of cocoa flavanols required for benefits”. Dr Laura Phipps, a spokeswoman for Alzheimer’s Research UK, said consumers would be “queuing out the door” for cocoa-based treatments, but warned that the findings were not yet conclusive. Every year, 6 percent of those beyond age 70 develop mild cognitive impairment, the researchers noted. The condition can be a precursor to diseases like Alzheimer’s and Dementia so reducing mild cognitive impairment also might decrease the percentage of people with these diseases, the researchers suggested, though more research would be needed to show this.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/08/14/elderly-brains-get-boost-from-dark-chocolate/#ixzz23cgQk7nO
For more about dementia see click here ←
Read about the beneficial effects of beetroot and dementia here ←
For a recipe for legendary chocolate brownies click here ←
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