Chocolate improves brain function new study says

Big news for chocolate lovers, a new study has found eating chocolate is positively associated with cognitive brain function.

The sweet findings come from data gathered from the sixth part of the Maine-Syracuse Longitudinal Study earlier this month, conducted in part by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

It’s not the first time we’ve heard about chocolate being good for our health.

Prior studies have shown chocolate can improve cardiovascular health and improve brain alertness but we’ve never known how chocolate impacts human cognition.

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According to researchers, this is the first study to examine associations between longer-term chocolate eating and brain function.

So what is it about chocolate that improves our health?

The delicious treat contains flavanols which are found in the cocoa.

Dark chocolate is said to contain the highest levels of flavanols, while milk and white chocolate contain significantly fewer.

The study, published in the journal Appetite, measured the dietary intake, cognitive function, and cardiovascular risk factors of 968 people between the ages of 23 and 98.

It concluded that the habitual consumption of chocolate had a significant positive effect on cognitive function.

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Regularly eating chocolate was "significantly associated with better performance on visual-spatial memory, working memory, scanning and tracking, abstract reasoning, and the mini-mental state examination," the study said.

The research also found that flavonols' positive association with cognitive function may also protect against cognitive decline due to aging, such as dementia.

No longer do you need to feel guilty eating chocolate, so what are you waiting for? Reach for a bar and bite.