Vitamins, cocoa & cognitive function

Introduction

Many thanks to a reader from Australia for this topic. This week we are looking at a randomised controlled/clinical trial (RCT). It was quite large and quite long. RCTs are always worth reviewing, as they are rare in the field of nutrition.

The study for this week was by Baker et al and it was called “Effects of cocoa extract and a multivitamin on cognitive function: A randomized clinical trial” (Ref 1). As the title suggests, the trial looked at both cocoa extract and multivitamin-mineral supplements to evaluate whether they have any impact on cognitive performance.

The background to the paper was given as – some population studies and some small clinical trials have suggested benefit can be derived from cocoa extract and/or multivitamin supplements. There would thus be a benefit to establish definitive evidence by doing a large enough, long enough trial. That’s what the researchers set out to do.