This weekend had a chocolatey feeling to it as yesterday’s annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) included a special session.

This was titled “The Neurobiology of Chocolate: A Mind-Altering Experience?” and was fittingly sponsored by Mars Incorporated. It wasn’t the company’s first sponsorship of research on health-beneficial cocoa, as it has supported such studies throughout the past 15 years.


The Chief Science Officer at Mars Inc, Dr Harold H. Schmitz, said that many laboratories are coming to consider flavanol-rich cocoa a significant source of beneficial effects on health.

Creating a special cocoa, particularly rich in flavanol, “could be developed to help maintain healthy brain function throughout several life stages,” according to Schmitz. “More research examining the potential of this cocoa in this important area of public health need is clearly warranted.”

The scientists reported several studies where the flow of blood to the brain was observed in different groups of people after consuming such a specially prepared cocoa rich in flavanol, supplied by Mars Inc.

Dr Ian Macdonald of the UK's Nottingham Medical School looked at changes in regional brain blood flow in participants who drank the flavanol-rich cocoa. He suggested that cocoa flavanols could be used to treat vascular impairments in the brain.

He said the study showed “that acute consumption of this particular flavanol-rich cocoa beverage was associated with increased blood flow to grey matter for 2 to 3 hours.” It could also enhance “brain function among older adults or for others in situations where they may be cognitively impaired, such as fatigue or sleep deprivation.”

Another scientist from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, US, Dr Norman K. Hollenberg, presented the results of his work with the Kuna Indians of Panama. The Kuna people consume a type of cocoa rich in flavanols on a daily basis and present unusually low blood pressure and rates of cardiovascular disease.

Dr Hollenberg’s study also included a group of healthy volunteers who were over 50, that consumed flavanol-rich cocoa. He noticed a “striking blood flow response” emerging over several weeks.

“Since this cocoa preparation is so well tolerated, it raises hope that the brain blood flow response it stimulates can result in maintenance of healthy brain function and cognition, which is an issue that unfortunately plagues many older adults today,” said Dr Hollenberg.