Chocolate Helps you do Mental Maths! 

Display formula of Theobromine

If you're revising maths and using mental arithmetic to do so, eat some chocolate! It's has actually been proven to help your mental maths. 

There are many brilliant chemicals in chocolate; tryptophan which makes the neurotransmitter serotonin which produces feelings of happiness. Phenylethylalanine (what a name) which is associated with the initial euphoria of falling in love and is an antidepressant when combined with dopamine (a naturally occurring chemical in the brain). And last but not least, theobromine which, when combined with caffeine, gives you the kick that you love when you eat chocolate. 

Imagine eating 25 of these at once...
(Starting to feel sick?)

Scientists at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego have suggested that chocolate contains substances which produce a cannabis-like effect on the brain. While you may think you've just found a cheaper way to get high, don't get too excited, you would have to eat more than 25 pounds of chocolate all in one go to get high the same way. 

So chocolate makes us all happy campers. But it, apparently, also helps you solve your simultaneous equations. 

Chocolate, especially dark chocolate, contains a group of compounds called flavanols, which increase the flow of blood to the brain. Volunteers were given flavanols in a 'cocoa drink' (read: scientific hot chocolate), they were then asked to count backwards in group of three from a random number between 800 and 999. Volunteers given the 'cocoa drink' were able to do the maths more quickly and accurately, and felt less tired and less mentally drained while practicing their arithmetic skills. They could continue to do the same maths for a longer period of time than volunteers who were not given flavanols found in chocolate. 

While this is looking great for us chocolate lovers in terms of having an excuse for a nibble here and there, flavanols are also found in fruits such as apples, pomegranates, blackberries and red grapes. Much healthier alternatives which also contain vitamins and fibre we all need. 

A double hit of flavanols in
blackberries and chocolate.
Surds here I come! 

Maybe for the ultimate flavanols kick (as well as your happy kick, your euphoric feeling of falling in love and your very weak cannabis hit) with your mental maths try dipping apple, blackberries and red grapes into a bowl of chocolate? (I may try that when revising for mocks!)