Make Your Brain Cocoa Crisp (from Men’s Health)

Need to focus?  A compound in chocolate can sharpen your mind, according to British researchers.  In a recent study, scientists gave people a cocoa drink loaded with healthy compounds called flavanols and then monitored blood flow to their brains.  The result:  Two hours after people drank the high-flavanol chocolate, blood flow to the areas of their brains involved with working memory and attention had increased by 50 percent.  “More oxygen and nutrients were delivered to their gray matter, improving brain function,” says a study coauthor, Ian Macdonald, Ph.D.  To find chocolate bars with the most brain-boosting benefits, look for the kind with the highest percentage of “cacao” (or “cocoa”), the flavanolfilled seeds from which chocolate is made.  The best tasting we’ve found: Chocolove’s Extra Strong Dark 77% cacao bar (chocolove.com.)

Men’s Health.  July/August 2007.  pg.48