High flavanol cocoa improved memory in older adults.

Could a carefully prepared cocoa drink help you remember where you left your keys? A small Columbia University Medical Centre trial suggests that cocoa flavanols may improve a specific type of age-related memory decline, although the findings are not a magical excuse to build a chocolate fountain in the kitchen.

The study involved 37 healthy adults aged 50 to 69, who consumed either a high flavanol drink containing 900 milligrams of flavanols daily or a low flavanol version containing 10 milligrams for three months. Brain scans and memory tests were carried out before and after the trial. Researchers found that the high flavanol group showed improved activity and blood volume in the dentate gyrus, a region of the hippocampus involved in learning and memory.

Lead author Adam M. Brickman, PhD, associate professor of neuropsychology at Columbia’s Taub Institute, said the brain scans showed noticeable improvements in dentate gyrus function among people who drank the high cocoa flavanol beverage. The study’s main researchers said that some participants performed after three months like typical 30- or 40-year-olds rather than typical 60-year-olds on the study’s memory task. That is impressive, although it does not mean your birth certificate is about to receive an enthusiastic rewrite.

There is one important catch for you and your sweet tooth. The drink was specially formulated by Mars, Incorporated, using a process designed to preserve flavanols that are often reduced during ordinary cocoa processing. The researchers therefore warned that regular chocolate is not necessarily equivalent to the study drink, and they advised against simply eating more chocolate to seek the same effect. The study, published in Nature Neuroscience, offers promising evidence, but Dr. Small also stressed that the results need to be replicated in larger studies.

I guess this means I shouldn’t grab another MARS bar from the pantry.