the healthy brain food is chocolate

Question

It’s rare to come across food that boosts brain function and is considered a pleasurable reward when you give yourself permission to eat it. But this is the exception that proves the rule, because in this case the healthy brain food is chocolate.

Not surprisingly, chocolate ranks as the most popular sweet treat in the world. Chocolate comes from cocoa beans, and people eat more than three million tons of them every year. From its humble beginnings with the Olmecs tribes of Mexico to its status as an upper class extravagance (and even, briefly, a currency), chocolate is something everyone can agree on. It’s that good.

It may also improve brain function. Studies over the years have shown that chocolate can help people maintain strong cognitive function deeper into life. It’s about as surprising as learning red wine and cheese might protect your cognitive functioning, too. 

Comments

Your explanation could use a little more summary of the article as you merely restate your claim with no evidence as to how you can prove it. Maybe link to a specific study that uses scientific evidence to prove your claim or draw your conclusions from the study. Maybe it is simply eating the chocolate that makes you happier, leading to healthy mental health and therefor long-term health.

Answer 1

The attached article from Better Aging (BA) claims that chocolate improves cognition and focus. It references three studies, two from Loma Linda University and one from the University of Illinois. 

The article does not clarify which specific studies through Loma Linda University it pulled its information from. While there are two studies conducted by Loma Linda with findings similar to the article's claims, BA misrepresents some aspects the findings. For one, it uses the terms chocolate and dark chocolate interchangeably, when the only applies to dark chocolate. The article claims that chocolate has benefits that reach "deeper into life," though both of the studies it references only discuss dark chocolate's short-term benefits. More notably, the article fails to mention that the principal investigator of both Loma Linda studies, Dr. Lee Berk, states that the phenomena, while supported by the studies, "require[s] further investigation" with larger sample sizes to determine "the significance of these effects for [...] the brain."

BA's source from the University of Illinois is reliable and also generally supports the article's main claim, though it's important to note that this study had a small sample size (only 18 participants). A blog post published by Harvard Medical School about chocolate and cognition states many studies on the topic tend to have smaller sample sizes, are "unable to eliminate the possibility of a placebo effect," and "cannot account for many other variables that can affect brain function."

A 2017 study from Frontiers in Nutrition found correlations similar to the other studies between dark chocolate and focus. A more recent study in the peer-reviewed journal Nutrients with a sample-size of 366 also "confirm[s] that acute and chronic cocoa intake have a positive effect on several cognitive outcomes," in healthy young people. The study's large sample size makes these results especially compelling. 

In short, the BA article makes some generalizations about the topic that could potentially be misleading. It leaves out some key details from the sources it references. At the same time, the article's main claim that dark chocolate improves focus and cognition is supported by multiple reliable sources. 

Comments

Great job breaking down the credibility of this article. One thing that you didn't consider is the claim itself. Although chocolate has some positive impacts the claim that it is "the" healthy brain food is an exaggeration and cannot really be proven.

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I agree that the main claim is exaggerated and leaves out some key details to be considered true. However, thank you for questioning the credibility and accentuating the facts in the references. You used very reliable sources.

Answer 2

This is somewhat true. Dark chocolate specifically was found to improve things like memory, stress levels, and mood in a study done at Loma Linda University in California. However, these effects were only found in types of chocolate higher in cocoa, such as dark chocolate. So, your average milk chocolate Hershey's bar or Dove chocolate probably won't have these effects. 

Study: New studies show dark chocolate consumption reduces stress and inflammation, while improving memory, immunity and mood | News (llu.edu)

Answer 3

The statement "The healthy brain food is chocolate" is unsubstantiated. There are many foods considered to be healthy for one's brain, what makes chocolate 'The' one? Nothing in the article substantiates chocolate as being more healthy for one's brain in comparison to other foods that are claimed to be 'healthy brain' foods.

https://www.betteraging.com/nutrition/is-there-a-connection-between-chocolate-and-better-brain-function/

Answer 4

Some of what this article was saying was true. studies have found that dark chocolate can improve your mood and stress levels, but not all chocolate contain the same amount of coco. so dark chocolate or the more amount of coco in the chocolate can be more useful then milk chocolate. 

source: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/your-brain-on-chocolate-2017081612179