Chocolate Does Make the Memories Sweeter

Flavanols found in cocoa beans (Yes! Chocolate!) and other foods do provide a boost for older people’s memories. The test, at Columbia University, was first done with rodents and deemed successful. Next came the human trials. Nineteen volunteers, aged 50 to 69 drank 900 milligrams of cocoa flavanols in water or milk every day for three months. The control group drank ten milligrams for the same time period. Before and after memory tests were conducted using abstract shapes for shape recognition because recognition times are known to lengthen by 220 milliseconds per decade. The high flavanol group reacted on average as though they were three decades younger. For me that would put me in my thirties. Maybe then I could remember where I put my car keys, or cell phone, or ear buds, you get the picture. But the really big bonus would be the chocolate (picture me smiling at the thought). Of course there is a catch, the number of chocolate bars it would take to add up to 900 milligrams of flavanols each day is (I am sad to say) health prohibitive. Oh well, a girl can dream…and hopefully find her ear buds eventually too.