Have you ever heard about having chocolates before exams helps you to write the exams better? It has been proven that the contents of dark chocolates provide benefits to human brains.
For most people, they become very anxious and nervous before the exams or even become more nervous during the exams. Chocolates have shown to improve anxiety symptoms and help people to enhance the feeling of calmness. From one of the components of dark chocolate called polyphenols, people can be helped by improving depression and anxiety. However, no changes in mood results in the consumption of chocolate drinks, which do not contain polyphenols.
In addition, the components of dark chocolate help to boost memory and problem-solving skills. Dark chocolates contain a high percentage of cocoa, which contains flavanols which is beneficial for your memory ability. Flavanols may act directly on our brains to protect neurons from injury, improve metabolism and their interactions with their molecular structures that is responsible for memory. The absorbed flavanols from the consumptions of dark chocolate are accumulated in the regions of a brain which is associated with learning and memory. They protect neurons by the increase in blood flow to the brain and improve the functions of neurons. For those who have consumed high percentage of flavanol dark chocolate, they have been shown to improve their performance on memory test.
It is important to know that only consumption of 70 percent or more can provide benefits towards your better memory functioning and the improvement in anxiety. Drinking low percentage of flavanols-containing chocolates or drinks would not have much therapeutic value; it would only have placebo effects.
For more information on the benefits of dark chocolate:
-Victoria (Ji Yoon) Park