Chocolate and its beneficial effects on the mind. AKA: chocolate helps you focus
As I have made abundantly clear I am in my final year of university with less than a month to get my dissertation finished (I’m panicking). During this time I started stress eating chocolate, developed a taste for ales and drank enough coffee to upset my bowels (which was probably made worse by the chocolate and ale, by the way), and I noticed that I could concentrate on work that had been evading me after downing a mouthful of chocolate buttons.
I tested this to see if it were just coincidence but sure enough, if I were struggling to get my head down to work then the chocolate gave me the push needed to work. I’ve done great ever since but I just had to see if anyone else had noticed this and, if they had, why it wasn’t public knowledge. Sure, if I had known three years ago then I would probably be morbidly obese right now, but I would also have done a lot better in my modules and been way, way less stressed by each deadline. Sure enough, I found some sources to back up my own experience.
So here is a study that I found through the website inc.com, which you can find here but I warn you they have automatic videos which are incredibly annoying when you don’t know where they are. They talk about of stuff I don’t understand (I know linguistics and a bit of psychology, not chemistry) but simplified: regardless of age and even if sleep-deprived, chocolate can give you a much-needed boost, milk chocolate being effective but maybe not so much as dark. And to make things better (depending on your point of view), the more chocolate you consume the better it’s effect.
As I mentioned from experience, it helps you focus when you are distracted; I’ve actually had to be tactical in my consumption as I may become engrossed in the wrong thing and be unable to focus on work. It also helps with memory, although I don’t know what they mean by that; is it long-term memory or working-memory or both? Because not only does working-memory directly feed into the long-term, but I desperately need help with that. It supposedly helps relieve stress, but maybe not if you are dieting or can no longer fit into your clothes (I’m gonna need to lose weight if I wanna wear my suit for graduation) and finally, it gives you a “mental boost” which they define as helping when you are feeling sluggish.
So given my recent weight gain I decided to look into alternatives (as well as something that may back up the other study) and there were the obvious result of coffee (does nothing for me), leafy greens (living alone it’s impractical to just consume large amounts before they perish) and eggs and fruit, neither of which have had any discernible effect on me. Unfortunately a number of the other results are costly and I only have a month and a bit left so I may as well just stick with the chocolate.
