A balanced diet is chocolate in both hands – a phrase commonly used to justify ones chocolate snacking behaviour. A phrase now shown to actually harbour some truth, as the cocoa bean is a rich source of flavanols: a class of natural compounds that has neuroprotective effects.
In their recent review published in Frontiers in Nutrition, Italian researchers examined the available literature for the effects of acute and chronic administration of cocoa flavanols on different cognitive domains. In other words: what happens to your brain up to a few hours after you eat cocoa flavanols, and what happens when you sustain such a cocoa flavanol enriched diet for a prolonged period of time?
