Chocolate may improve your memory, says science

This glorious news couldn't have come at a more pertinent time -- with Halloween right around the corner. A study conducted by some folks at Columbia University Medical Center has indicated that a diet rich in chocolate can greatly improve your memory later in life. So stock up on those fun-size candy bars, son.

The study, published in Nature Neuroscience, involved giving a group of adults a chocolate-filled cocoa drink daily for three months, and subsequently monitoring their memory functions. Flavanols -- compounds naturally found in chocolate and other foods -- were shown to give 60-year-old adults the recognition abilities of 30- to 40-year-olds. Take that, you 30- to 40-year-old whippersnappers!

Unfortunately, most cocoa-processing methods nowadays remove the flavanols from chocolate, but if you eat enough of the stuff, you'll probably get the same effects. Or at least a massive headache. So maybe talk to your doctor first.

Adam Lapetina is a Food/Drink staff writer for Thrillist, and his memory is off to a pretty good start. Read his musings at @adamlapetina.