
Cocoa Flavanols Reverse Age-related Memory Decline - Varcht
http://app.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2014/10/cocoa-flavanols-reverse-age-related-memory-decline
======
casca
Release from the institution that did the research:
[http://newsroom.cumc.columbia.edu/blog/2014/10/26/flavanols-...](http://newsroom.cumc.columbia.edu/blog/2014/10/26/flavanols-
memory-decline/)

TL;DR:

\- "37 healthy volunteers"

\- "cocoa flavanol-containing test drink prepared specifically for research
purposes was produced by the food company Mars"

\- "Most methods of processing cocoa remove many of the flavanols found in the
raw plant"

\- "The high-flavanol group also performed significantly better on the memory
test. “If a participant had the memory of a typical 60-year-old at the
beginning of the study, after three months that person on average had the
memory of a typical 30- or 40-year-old,” "

\- "The researchers point out that the product used in the study is not the
same as chocolate, and they caution against an increase in chocolate
consumption in an attempt to gain this effect."

~~~
Florin_Andrei
Right, so the study is not that awesome. However...

> _Most methods of processing cocoa remove many of the flavanols found in the
> raw plant_

...I wonder if this is related to the so-called "Dutch process" or alkali
processed chocolate?

You can buy non-dutch cocoa that contains more of the original ingredients of
the beans.

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jmount
Typical "science" for hire. Materials supplied by Mars inc. Flavonols in
question largely killed by "Dutch process" used to make chocolate. And how
much Cocoa is in cheap chocolate anyway?

~~~
kolev
Mars has a cocoa supplement business, too - CocoaVia [1].

[1] [http://www.cocoavia.com/](http://www.cocoavia.com/)

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throwaway5752
Fascinating findings!

Key point: "The researchers point out that the product used in the study is
not the same as chocolate, and they caution against an increase in chocolate
consumption in an attempt to gain this effect."

edit: hate to do this, but would love to know rationales for downvotes. I
wanted to drop that comment out there in case people thought they could go out
and eat a lot of dark chocolate to get the same benefits, which they should
not (blood sugar and obesity are strongly linked to cognitive decline).
Dietary consumption of the flavanols is not the same thing. Maybe I should
have just written that out, but I thought it was pretty self-explanatory for
an educated crowd.

edit 2: no need to upvote, I'm not trolling for those (edit #1 was a bit more
about general curiosity and mild peevishness) :) And thank you @HCIdivision17,
for the feedback. I see the future for that in ingredients (drinks with green
coffee/tea extracts) and supplements (like some plant phenol products
(resveratrol, pterostilbene)

~~~
HCIdivision17
I can't help but think your bio entry says it all (explicit's better than
implicit, too ;).

But I have to agree: it's interesting stuff and may spur different cocoa
formulas in the future. I don't really know anything about flavinols, so I'll
be doing a bit of reading about it now.

