This was too fun not to share.  Well, these two things.

First, turns out that eating dark chocolate may actually help seniors increase how quickly their brain processes things.  Mind you, the study was sponsored by Mars, the company responsible for giving us M&M’s and Snickers bars.  Nevertheless, it worked.

<a href=”http://www.valleyhelpathome.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Senior-Drinking-Hot-Cocoa.jpg”><img class=”size-full wp-image-491″ alt=”Elderly Hot Chocolate Improve Health” src=”http://www.valleyhelpathome.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Senior-Drinking-Hot-Cocoa.jpg” width=”198″ height=”296″ /></a> A little bit of chocolate may make your brain go a long way.

The study, published in August 2012’s American Heart Association’s journal, <em>Hypertension, </em>followed 90 seniors with mild cognitive impairment broken into three groups. Each group was given a certain amount of hot cocoa to drink.  The group that drank the most hot cocoa actually  saw “significantly higher overall cognitive scores.”

Now the only question left is, which chocolate to choose?

Fortunately, last November, Cook’s Illustrated published which chocolate they recommend to use when cooking.

And that can be found by clicking here: <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”><strong><a href=”http://bit.ly/1ic7zzz” target=”_blank”>Cook’s Illustrated Dark Chocolate Taste</a></strong></span><span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>
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<em>1 Assist Care of the Valley Senior Care: Assisted Living At Home provides assisted living services to seniors living in East Idaho from Idaho Falls to Rexburg to Driggs and everywhere in between.  Part of our services include preparing meals, which can include dark chocolate recipes.</em>

<em>To find out more about our assisted living services that allow seniors to stay in their own home, give us a call at 208-557-4215.</em>