Eating Dark Chocolate and Its Effects on the Brain

Source Getting to Know Dark Chocolates More This article tackles the significance of dark chocolate in improving human brain health. Among its many benefits are the following effects: Reduction of neurodegenerative illnesses Improvement of mood and performance in cognitive tasks Contains high antioxidant levels The Origin of Chocolates: A Brief History During the 15 th century, ancient Mayan and Aztec civilizations of Central America drank finely ground bitter cacao beans mixed with hot water and chilies. These civilizations also used the same beans as a currency in trading raw materials. When Christopher Columbus was on his last journey to the New World, he came across a canoe with agricultural products which included cacao beans. He then brought these beans to Spain where people grew fond of its rich taste. With such popularity, the cacao beans were consumed in different ways (Kuwana, 2010). Source What is a Chocolate? Cacao beans serve as the major ingredient of chocolates. These are the seeds of Theobroma cacao plant that have gone through drying and fermentation. According to Bennion, Bent, and Bamford (1997), “Chocolate may be defined as a mixture of toasted cocoa beans and sugar ground down to a very fine particle size with or without the addition of butter.” It contains about 400 chemicals that can be grouped into fats, flavonoids, amino acids, and methylxanthine. A chocolate’s fat content is comprised of oleic acid, stearic acid, and palmitic acid. Its flavonoids have flavanols and polyphenols. Tryptophan, phenylethylamine, anandamide, tyrosine, dopamine, and monoamine oxidase inhibitors form its set of amino acids. Its methylxanthine component has theobromine and caffeine (Arndt, 2009). How Chocolates are Made The cocoa beans undergo different processes for manufacturing chocolates. Initially, the cocoa beans are roasted to make the bean shells brittle. Later, the cocoa beans are transferred to a […]

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