New research suggests that dark chocolate people more attentive, enabling them to beat the midday slump.
Researchers at Northern Arizona University found that chocolate can increase brain characteristics of attention and significantly affect blood pressure levels. Historically, chocolate has been recognized as a vasodilator, meaning that it widens blood vessels and lowers blood pressure in the long run, but chocolate also contains some powerful stimulants.
"Chocolate is indeed a stimulant and it activates the brain in a really special way," Larry Stevens, a professor of psychological sciences at NAU, said in a statement. "It can increase brain characteristics of attention, and it also significantly affects blood pressure levels."
For the study, researchers examined the acute effects of chocolate on attentional characteristics of the brain and the first-ever study of chocolate consumption performed using electroencephalography on more than 100 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 25 years old. The researchers examined the EEG levels and blood pressure effects of consuming a 60 percent cacao confection compared with five control conditions.
The results for the participants who consumed the 60 percent cacao chocolate showed that the brain was more alert and attentive after consumption. Their blood pressure also increased for a short time.
"A lot of us in the afternoon get a little fuzzy and can't pay attention, particularly students, so we could have a higher cacao content chocolate bar and it would increase attention," Stevens said.
Stevens hopes the results of this study will encourage manufacturers to investigate further and consider the health benefits of developing a chocolate bar made with high-cacao content and L-theanine.
"People don't generally eat chocolate and think it's going to be healthy for them," Stevens said.
He added that there is a possibility the millions of hypertension patients in the country could eat a bar of this heart healthy chocolate every afternoon and their blood pressure would drop into the normal range, and they would be more alert and attentive.
The findings are detailed in the journal Neuro Regulation.
