Cacao stops brain ageing

You can pronounce the potato as either “poh-tah-toe” or “poh-tay-toe” or you can call a tomato a “toe-mah-toe” or a “toe-may-toe”. However you pronounce the name there is no difference in the vegetable or fruit you are talking about. By contrast, although there may seem to be little difference between cacao and cocoa, there is a world of difference and new research suggests that the difference might be very important for your ageing brain.

So let’s clarify terms; the cacao bean is the source of both cacao and cocoa powders. Cacao beans are found inside the fruit of the Theobroma cacao tree in fleshy, oval-shaped pods. The beans are harvested, fermented, and dried. When you see cacao nibs, powdered cacao (or cacao powder) in the Grocery stores, the bean is in its raw state—uncooked, additive free, and unprocessed. Cacao contains an abundance of flavanol antioxidants as well as fibre, magnesium, essential fatty acids, iron, copper, zinc, sulphur, and calcium. It is only to switch a few vowels to get from “cacao” to “cocoa” but the linguistic difference belies the actual difference.

When cacao beans are roasted and processed they are called “cocoa”. Most cocoa powders have additives like sweeteners or cocoa butter. Once roasted and processed (turning cacao to cocoa), the beans lose much of their nutritional benefits. There are two processes used to make cocoa powder. Dutch-process cocoa powder is made from cacao beans that have been washed with a potassium carbonate solution, to neutralise their acidity. Dutch-process cocoa is dark brown in colour. Natural cocoa powder is reddish-brown and is made from cocoa beans that are simply roasted and ground into a fine powder. Natural unsweetened cocoa powder is very similar to raw cacao powder except for experiencing higher temperatures during production, which decreases antioxidant activity.

With that knowledge behind us, let’s look at the new study which, it should be noted, was partially funded by the food company Mars.

The researchers from Columbia University Medical Centre began by noting that some of the age-related changes that occur in memory function come from a part of the brain deteriorating known as the dentate gyrus. In mice flavanols from cacao have been linked to improved connections within the dentate gyrus so these researchers wanted to see if a similar effect would occur in humans leading to improved memory.

To study this they gathered healthy subjects ranging from 50 to 69 years old. Half of the subjects followed a low-flavanol diet containing 10mg of cacao flavanols a day while the other group consumed a high flavanol diet consuming around 900mg of flavanols a day. This high flavanol intake was achieved using a cocoa drink produced by Mars made specifically for the study and produced to contain the flavanols, many of which are usually lost during processing.

At the beginning of the study and then again after three months MRIs were taken of the dentate gyrus and the subjects were given pattern-recognition tasks designed to specifically test the type of memory governed by the dentate gyrus.

The results showed that the people who consumed the high flavanol diet had much greater blood flow to the dentate gyrus indicating greater metabolic activity and they also did significantly better on the memory tests. According to the researchers the changes were such that if the person had the memory of a typical 60 yr old at the beginning of the study, after the three months they had the memory of a 30-40 yr old.

The researchers themselves made the point that you will not get this effect from eating chocolate. You won’t even get it from eating cocoa. To get the flavanols in question you need to eat raw cacao. The taste may not be as sweet but the results will be. Always follow Target Catalogue to see quality goods.