The chocolate news we were all waiting for? There's a catch

A recent study suggested chocolate could be better for the brain than exercise - but there's a catch.

The research, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, looked at a small number of subjects aged between 50-69. It found that they reported improved memory after a large dose of flavanols, a chemical that occurs in chocolate, but did not report a similar improvement after exercise.

Before we all take the streets to celebrate, psychology Professor Gary Wenk has some doubts about the study. He points out that chocolate is not actually a great source of flavanols, so to replicate the results a person would need to eat around 1kg of pure cocoa power per day (or 44lbs of chocolate). In Britain a Mars bar is 51 grams, or 0.11lbs - so to mimic the results of the study you would need to eat 400 Mars bars a day.

"I would not recommend that anyone attempt to replicate this study at home," Professor Wenk concludes, somewhat unnecessarily.

HT Jezebel

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