This third-in-line beverage tops the other two, coffee and tea, in health benefits, yet it has not become as popular

Coffee and tea came to be popular in India essentially due to colonial history. They are both imports into our country, and we now grow them in large plantations. Today, Darjeeling Tea and Coorg Coffee are world famous and coveted. Yet, an equally popular drink, cocoa, has not become that popular. All we do is, pretty much to eat it in the solid, processed form as chocolate bars, but not as a “Cuppa.”

Colonial history has a role in the popularisation of cocoa too, but elsewhere. Cocoa was first discovered and coveted by the Mayan civilisation of Central America. The Mayans gave the plant (and its seeds) the name cocoa (or cacao), meaning ‘The Food of the Gods’. Cocoa seeds were used in family and community functions, and even used as currency. The Aztec Indians there made a drink with cocoa powder, chilli, musk and honey, calling it Chocolatl or “beaten drink”; hence the name chocolate.

When the Spanish colonised much of the Americas, they popularised and monopolised cocoa, making its production a well guarded secret as they brought it to Europe. Cocoa became the drink of the super rich. A lot of romance and class was associated with it. Love songs, courting the beloved, were written and sung (and are still done) in Europe and America. (For example, you can enjoy watching Doris Day singing “A Chocolate Sundae on a Saturday Night” on Youtube). But as the Industrial Revolution made machines popular, the grinding of cocoa seeds in large amounts and making them available to “all and sundry” made cocoa or hot chocolate lose their fancy.

Only 3 million tons

Today, while 10 million tons of coffee and 5 million tons of tea are produced yearly across the world, cocoa has a production of about 3 million tons. Yet, this third-in-line beverage tops the other two in health benefits. Indeed, much to the consternation of many in South India, we need to point out that coffee is a “drug,” albeit a mild one, because of the caffeine it contains. Because of this, many people have taken to drinking “decaf” coffee (which is neither here nor there!). Tea, on the other hand, is now recognised to be a health drink, with its content of molecules of the so called flavonoid family acting as antioxidants and cell-protecting molecules (True, it too has caffeine and theobromine, but much less than coffee). But it is cocoa that tops the list as the healthiest drink. Yet it has not become as popular as tea and coffee — a quirk of history based on who our colonials were!

Over the years, it has become increasing clear that cocoa and chocolates not just good to taste, but are good for cognition as well. Of particular interest is a paper published by Valentina Socci and colleagues, titled “ Enhancing human cognition with cocoa flavonoids,” which has appeared in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition, 16 May 2017 ( free access). The authors point out that the family of flavonoids (catechins, quercetin, anthocyanidins) present in cocoa not only act as antioxidants and cell protectants just as tea does, but they protect human cognition, counteract cognitive decline and memory loss as well. In other words, they act directly on the nervous system of the body and the brain. The Socci paper above quotes several earlier works, both relating to the basic biology of the flavonoids in improving health and cognition, but also about a dozen trials involving human volunteers, many of whom show improved working memory, in addition to improvement in blood pressure and insulin resistance.

Cocoa and cognition

An Italian group led by Dr. G. Desideri has conducted randomised controlled human trials, and found benefits in cognitive function, blood pressure and the metabolic profiles of elderly subjects with mild memory impairment. They call these studies the Cocoa, Cognition and Aging (CoCoA) study.

What are the molecular underpinnings involved in the mechanisms contributing to learning and memory? An earlier paper by Dr. J.P.E. Spencer, in the journal Proc. Nutr. Soc., 2008, on the control of long-term potentiation and memory lists a series of proteins and enzymes, and how these plant flavonoids reach the brain, crossing the blood-brain barrier, and effect their action. While the exact modes of action are yet to be clarified, it appears that they may protect neurons against damage, reduce inflammation, promote and even generate new connections between nerve cells.

An editorial in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2015 agrees with much of the conclusions drawn on the positive effects of cocoa on memory retention and gain, and points out that unsweetened and unprocessed dark cocoa powder would be the best, while that processed with alkali (which is paler, and more common in candy-bars) is less effective. It is estimated that 100 grams of the usual dark chocolate contains about 100 mg of flavonoids, while 100 mg of unsweetened and unprocessed cocoa powder may have as much as 250 mg.

Should one then quit coffee in the morning and go for dark cocoa powder? A friend (whose name skips me for the moment) has suggested that I drink a cup of cocoa every day, along with the morning coffee and the afternoon tea, and perhaps include a glass of red wine in the evenings, so as to maximise benefit — sound advice!

dbala@lvpei.org