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Study associates eating chocolate with winning Nobel prizes
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Chocolate consumption appears to be up among Nobel laureates, according to a study conducted by Cardiology Today Editorial Board member Franz H. Messerli, MD, who noted a significant association between chocolate consumption per capita and the number of Nobel Prize winners in 23 countries.
Improved endothelial function and lower BP are numbered among the benefits of dietary flavanols, which are found in cocoa, but data also suggest that these flavanols may also boost cognition as well.
Franz H. Messerli
“Since chocolate consumption could hypothetically improve cognitive function not only in individuals but also in whole populations, I wondered whether there would be a correlation between a country’s level of chocolate consumption and its population’s cognitive function,” Messerli wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine.
He noted that, in the absence of data on overall national cognitive function, “the total number of Nobel laureates per capita could serve as a surrogate end point reflecting the proportion with superior cognitive function.”
Messerli found “a close, significant linear correlation” between chocolate consumption per capita and the number of Nobel Laureates per 10 million persons in 23 countries (P<.0001). Excluding Sweden, he reported, the correlation coefficient rose to 0.862. According to the findings, Switzerland had both the most Nobel laureates and highest chocolate consumption.
To increase the number of Nobel laureates in a given country by one, the population would need to consume about 0.4 kg of chocolate per capita per year, according to estimates in the study, with the United States requiring 125 million kg of chocolate per year.
Evidently, Messerli said, these results do not prove causation.
“However, since chocolate consumption has been documented to improve cognitive function, it seems most likely that in a dose-dependent way, chocolate intake provides the abundant fertile ground needed for the sprouting of Nobel laureates,” he wrote.
Nevertheless, he pointed out that the study is only hypothesis-generating and requires confirmation in a prospective, randomized trial.
Messerli also highlighted Sweden as a possible outlier, with data indicating that, based on its per capita chocolate consumption, Sweden should have produced about 14 Nobel laureates, rather than the 32 observed in the study.
“One cannot quite escape the notion that either the Nobel Committee in Stockholm has some inherent patriotic bias when assessing the candidates for these awards or, perhaps, that the Swedes are particularly sensitive to chocolate, and even miniscule amounts greatly enhance their cognition,” Messerli wrote.
On the other hand, he said, reverse causation could be responsible, as enhanced cognitive performance could lead to increased countrywide chocolate consumption.
As a disclosure, Messerli reports regular daily chocolate consumption — mostly in the form of Lindt’s dark varieties.
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