Does Chocolate Equal Cocoa

Time and again I come across a news article mentioning of some research about how chocolate is good for your teeth or your mental health or improves mathematical skills. We see the word "chocolate" in the header or the first few sentences of the first paragraph, and it disappears into the abyss of useless junk while "cocoa" emerges slowly but surely. I wonder why? Does chocolate industry pour millions into advertising? Is there something I am not aware of?



Let us take the latest example very appropriately titled Chocolate Drink Could Help You Do The Math, circulating in zeros and ones. It starts:

Foods containing high levels of cocoa flavanols, found in chocolate, have been shown to increase cerebral blood flow, and it has also been proven that consumption of plants that have these properties improves performance on mentally demanding tasks. We wanted to discover whether cocoa flavanols produced the same effect.

And continues:

30 healthy adults consumed cocoa drinks on different days containing 520 mg of cocoa flavanols, 993 mg of cocoa flavanols or a control drink. The participants were given a number of mentally demanding tasks to complete.

And ends:

The drink rich in cocoa flavanols significantly improved aspects of cognitive performance and levels of fatigue during this mentally demanding task.

The article I chose is as close as possible to the original research. In its voyage through the media channels, the ratio of chocolate to cocoa will increase considerably in favor of the former.

Last time I checked, chocolate is made of cocoa, cocoa butter, milk, sugar, alkaloids such as theobromine and phenethylamine and who knows how many more additives in our over competitive economy in order to increase its shelf life. Now, if you want increased cognitive performance and decreased levels of fatigue, I can only recommend you drink hot cocoa, no sugar or milk added.

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