Flavanols May Improve Age-Related Memory Loss
Flavanols, which are found in small amounts in raw cocoa, tea leaves, fruits, and vegetables, may be able to improve age-related memory loss. The normal process by which chocolate is made removes all flavanols from cocoa, but the Mars Inc. company recently developed a process to isolate flavanol in powder form.
In a 2014 study by Scott Small et al. in Nature Neuroscience, of 37 participants between the ages of 50 and 69, those who were randomized to a high-flavanol diet (900mg per day, from drinking the powder mixed with water or milk) over a three-month period showed more improvement on a memory test than those participants who were randomized to a low-flavanol diet (10mg per day). The high-flavanol group both scored higher than the other group at the end of the study and showed more improvement relative to their own abilities at the start of the study. Small said that after three months of taking the flavanols, someone who began with a typical memory for a 60-year-old developed a memory more like a 30- or 40-year-old. The high-flavanol group also showed improvement in function in a part of the hippocampus called the dentate gyrus.
