Chocolate, wine and tea improve brain performance

(PhysOrg.com) -- All that chocolate might actually help finish the bumper Christmas crossword over the seasonal period. According to Oxford researchers working with colleagues in Norway, chocolate, wine and tea enhance cognitive performance.

The team from Oxford’s Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics and Norway examined the relation between cognitive performance and the intake of three common foodstuffs that contain flavonoids (chocolate, wine, and tea) in 2,031 older people (aged between 70 and 74).

Participants filled in information about their habitual food intake and underwent a battery of cognitive tests.Those who consumed chocolate, wine, or tea had significantly better mean test scores and lower prevalence of poor cognitive performance than those who did not. The team reported their findings in the Journal of Nutrition.

The role of micronutrients in age-related cognitive decline is being increasingly studied. Fruits and beverages such as tea, red wine, cocoa, and coffee are major dietary sources of polyphenols, micronutrients found in plant-derived foods. The largest subclass of dietary polyphenols is flavonoids, and it has been reported in the past that those who consume lots of flavonoids have a lower incidence of dementia.

The latest findings seem to support the theory, although the researchers caution that more research would be needed to prove that it was flavonoids, rather than some other aspect of the foods studied, that made the difference.The effect was most pronounced for wine.

However, say the researchers, those overdoing it at Christmas should note that while moderate alcohol consumption is associated with better cognitive function and reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, heavy alcohol intake could be one of many causes of dementia – as well as a host of other health problems.

Provided by Oxford University

   

• thales - Dec 22, 2008
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  This is just the rationalization I was looking for.
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• tigger - Dec 22, 2008
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  Tea is good. Ogg. Red wine good... but meh, every time I drink it I drink more than a glass so it ends up being bad. Again, Tea is good. Ogg.
  
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• morpheus2012 - Dec 23, 2008
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  if u want to get the benefit of these 3
  
  withouht driking a galon of wine a day eating 2 pounds of chocolate or driking 1 galonn of tea
  
  u can get a
  revasrtrol pill for wine
  choclate pholiuphenols for chocalate
  and green tea extract for tea
  
  due to high concentration u pop a pill a day and u get more preotection then eating driking those foods
  
  without the negative efects like celulalar demage from excess aslchohol or the sugar from chocalate
  
  http://www.lef.or...ted.html
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• rrrn - Dec 23, 2008
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  Though I eat much chocolate and drink more than 3 liters of tea every day, my employer says that I do not perform sufficiently.
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• MikeB - Dec 23, 2008
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  rrn,
  Looks like you are leaving wine out of your performance regime.
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• MGraser - Dec 23, 2008
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  I know what I'm going to do over vacation now - improve my brain performance big time!
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• smiffy - Dec 23, 2008
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  Now's the season to be brainy, tra la la la la, la la la lah.
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• Soylent - Dec 23, 2008
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  Morpheus, that's a bad idea. We don't know which substances are the active ingredients, we don't know how these active ingredients work although there are several potential mechanisms that have been suggested.
  
  The effect could for instance show a hormetic response. E.g. if you don't exercise at all it puts you at significantly higher risk of several life-threatening diseases; if you challenge your body with repeated doses of moderate exercise it's generally recognized as very helpful, if you exert yourself too much without letting your body recover it's potentially lethal.
  
  Alcohol(in any form, not just red wine) is tentatively recognized by many as reducing cardiovascular disease when consumed in moderate amounts(one drink or less per day). Ionizing radiation, stress, caffeine, caloric restriction, nitric oxide and many other environmental stressors have been suggested as possibly hormetic in subclinical amounts.
  
  I'm not saying the hormesis model is correct, it's merely one of many possibilities that would render it a bad choice to extrapolate beyond what we do know(e.g. having a glass of red wine now and then is apparently helpful => eat large amounts of raw reservatol).
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• morpheus2012 - Dec 28, 2008
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  Morpheus, that's a bad idea. We don't know which substances are the active ingredients, we don't know how these active ingredients work although there are several potential mechanisms that have been suggested.
  
  The effect could for instance show a hormetic response. E.g. if you don't exercise at all it puts you at significantly higher risk of several life-threatening diseases; if you challenge your body with repeated doses of moderate exercise it's generally recognized as very helpful, if you exert yourself too much without letting your body recover it's potentially lethal.
  
  Alcohol(in any form, not just red wine) is tentatively recognized by many as reducing cardiovascular disease when consumed in moderate amounts(one drink or less per day). Ionizing radiation, stress, caffeine, caloric restriction, nitric oxide and many other environmental stressors have been suggested as possibly hormetic in subclinical amounts.
  
  I'm not saying the hormesis model is correct, it's merely one of many possibilities that would render it a bad choice to extrapolate beyond what we do know(e.g. having a glass of red wine now and then is apparently helpful => eat large amounts of raw reservatol).

  
  
  will al do respect soylent u have no clue what u talking about and u didnt read scietific news on that
  in last 20 years i would say,
  
  the active ingriedients, mentiond, are as falows
  resevastrol for wine taht actually extands life span
  of any animal giving 2
  
  in tea green tea multiple pholiphenols most active and ussefull egcg cpmpund anti cancer propreties
  proven in clinical trials
  also the chocolate pholyphenols
  
  all this are proven ffrom the exact molecar structure and the actually how they worked at the molecular level when they interct in the human body
  
  once again this are scietific facts and scietific jurnals and clinical trials,
  
  ofcourse the dumn mainstream who are tought in scholl
  that only what the pharma cartel tells what its true and there drugs never here about this or willfully ignore them
  
  so u are one of those who belives what bush tells him on tv, like the weapons of mass disctruciton in iraq udnesrtand
  
  u have no clue no knowledge no idea on this topic at least
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• kerry - Dec 28, 2008
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  Is morpheus even literate..?
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• Soylent - Dec 29, 2008
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  will al do respect soylent u have no clue what u talking about and u didnt read scietific news on that
  in last 20 years i would say,
  
  the active ingriedients, mentiond, are as falows
  resevastrol for wine taht actually extands life span
  of any animal giving 2
  
  in tea green tea multiple pholiphenols most active and ussefull egcg cpmpund anti cancer propreties
  proven in clinical trials
  also the chocolate pholyphenols
  
  all this are proven ffrom the exact molecar structure and the actually how they worked at the molecular level when they interct in the human body

  
  
  Patent nonsense. We know there are these substances and what their chemical structure is and what kind of reactions they might be involved in, but we don't even have solid evidence behind whether anti-oxidants are good or bad yet. As soon as someone made the suggestion that they might be the reason tea, wine and chocolate are helpful the "alternative medicine" scammers took the ball and ran with it; making claims they cannot substantiate.
  
  

  once again this are scietific facts and scietific jurnals and clinical trials,

  
  
  These "scietific jurnals" and clinical trials thus far back the conclusion that it is little more than mere extrapolation and speculation at this point.
  
  

  ofcourse the dumn mainstream who are tought in scholl
  that only what the pharma cartel tells what its true and there drugs never here about this or willfully ignore them
  
  so u are one of those who belives what bush tells him on tv, like the weapons of mass disctruciton in iraq udnesrtand
  
  u have no clue no knowledge no idea on this topic at least

  
  
  And of course you have to go off on some crazy conspiracy tangent; I half expected as much from the terrible spelling and general dislike of evidence-based medicine in favour of wishful thinking and conjecture.
  
  I'll keep enjoying my chocolate, coffee, tea and sundry alcohol without extracting and consuming large quantities of potentially harmful substances thank you very much.
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