Friday, January 16, 2009

Your brain on wine, tea and chocolate


Who would've thought? Before my next game of chess, I'll drink a glass of cabernet, a cup of green tea and a bite into a piece of chocolate.


All three foods contain antioxidant flavonoids that support brain health and, according to a study of Oxford and Norwegian researchers, elderly subjects had better test scores in cognitive performance when they consumed these foods. Those that consume all three foods in moderation generated the best test scores.


You don't need much of each. The study revealed that a maximum effect of cognition at an intake of 10g of chocolate, 75-100ml of wine and the same for wine.


Too much of either of these three foods are known to have ill effects.


Reference


Nurk E, Refsum H, Drevon CA, Tell GS, Nygaard HA, Engedal K, Smith AD. Intake of flavonoid-rich wine, tea, and chocolate by elderly men and women is associated with better cognitive test performance. J Nutr. 2009 Jan;139(1):120-7. Epub 2008 Dec 3. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19056649.