Harvard Cocoa Flavanol Study Nears Completion
Harvard University, 22,000 people, 5 years of daily cocoa flavanols (600mg) and the potential to revolutionize how we view cocoa as a food, medicine and performance booster!
That’s COSMOS: a giant study designed to confirm and extend the favorable findings of many smaller studies conducted over the past twenty years.
Initial results on cognitive performance and brain function are expected before the year is out, with cardiovascular and cancer data anticipated just behind in 2021.
The data is sure to reshape nutritional guidelines, impact medical practice, and forever change the way we think about and consume cocoa and chocolate! Below are just a few of the questions the study is designed to answer:
- Do cocoa flavanols improve memory and cognitive function?
- Do cocoa flavanols help prevent Alzheimer’s disease?
- Do flavanols prevent cardiovascular events, including heart attacks and stroke?
- Do cocoa flavanols reduce the risk of breast, colorectal and lung cancer?
- Do cocoa flavanols improve overall physical performance?
Of course, it’s only fitting that Harvard leads the charge with COSMOS since the study builds on the groundbreaking research begun by the late Harvard Professor Norm Hollenberg over two decades ago.
Hollenberg and his team linked extraordinarily low rates of cardiovascular disease and cancer among the Kuna Indians, an indigenous people living off the coast of Panama, to super high levels of cocoa flavanol consumption. Turns out that the average Kuna drank five cups of lightly processed, high flavanol cocoa daily!
The FlavaBlog will be following COSMOS closely! We look forward to sharing the results as they’re published. So subscribe here if you haven’t already, and enjoy being among the first to know the latest about the benefits FlavaFans are already reaping every day!