Elsevier

Nutrition

Volume 46, February 2018, Pages 90-96
Nutrition

Applied nutritional investigation
Flavanol-rich cocoa consumption enhances exercise-induced executive function improvements in humans

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nut.2017.08.017Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Consumption of high cocoa flavanol (HCF) could acutely improve cognitive function.

  • The effect of a combination of HCF and exercise on cognitive functions is unclear.

  • The effect of HCF on exercise-induced improvement in cognitive function was examined.

  • HCF further promoted improvements in exercise-induced executive function.

  • A combination of HCF and aerobic exercise is a beneficial strategy for improving executive function.

Abstract

Objective

Aerobic exercise is known to acutely improve cognitive functions, such as executive function (EF) and memory function (MF). Additionally, consumption of flavanol-rich cocoa has been reported to acutely improve cognitive function. The aim of this study was to determine whether high cocoa flavanol (CF; HCF) consumption would enhance exercise-induced improvement in cognitive function. To test this hypothesis, we examined the combined effects of HCF consumption and moderate-intensity exercise on EF and MF during postexercise recovery.

Methods

Ten healthy young men received either an HCF (563 mg of CF) or energy-matched low CF (LCF; 38 mg of CF) beverage 70 min before exercise in a single-blind counterbalanced manner. The men then performed moderate-intensity cycling exercise at 60% of peak oxygen uptake for 30 min. The participants performed a color-word Stroop task and face-name matching task to evaluate EF and MF, respectively, during six time periods throughout the experimental session.

Results

EF significantly improved immediately after exercise compared with before exercise in both conditions. However, EF was higher after HCF consumption than after LCF consumption during all time periods because HCF consumption improved EF before exercise. In contrast, HCF consumption and moderate-intensity exercise did not improve MF throughout the experiment.

Conclusion

The present findings demonstrated that HCF consumption before moderate-intensity exercise could enhance exercise-induced improvement in EF, but not in MF. Therefore, we suggest that the combination of HCF consumption and aerobic exercise may be beneficial for improving EF.

Introduction

Cognitive function involves various brain functions, including executive function (EF) and memory function (MF). EF includes working memory, reasoning, task flexibility, and problem solving, and is mediated by the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) [1], [2]. MF includes episodic, short-, and long-term memory and is mediated by the medial temporal lobe and hippocampus [3], [4].

Emerging studies have reported that aerobic exercise can acutely improve cognitive functions, such as EF and MF [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11]. In general, compared with habitual low-intensity exercise, high-intensity exercise can effectively improve human health [12]. Recently, we determined that postexercise improvements in EF could be effectively prolonged after moderate-intensity exercise compared with low-intensity exercise, despite an equivalent exercise volume between the two conditions [11]. Moreover, we determined that optimal exercise protocol for human health (i.e., moderate-intensity exercise for ≥30 min) [13] could effectively improve postexercise EF [11].

With regard to nutritional investigations, flavanol-rich cocoa, derived from the seeds of the fruit of the Theobroma cacao tree [14], may be beneficial for improving human health [15], [16], [17], [18], including brain health [19]. Furthermore, previous studies have demonstrated that acute consumption of high cocoa flavanol (CF; HCF) can effectively improve cognitive function [17], [19], [20], [21] compared with low CF (LCF), potentially by enhancing neural activation in the brain [14], [22]. Thus, in addition to aerobic exercise, HCF consumption may be beneficial for enhancing cognitive function. It is well known that, compared with a single intervention, a combination of nutritional and exercise interventions can effectively promote human health [23]. However, to the best of our knowledge, no study has found an additive effect of nutritional and exercise interventions on cognitive function [24]. Thus, we examined the combined effects of HCF consumption and moderate-intensity exercise on EF and MF during postexercise recovery. We hypothesized that HCF consumption would enhance the exercise-induced improvement of cognitive functions, such as EF and MF.

Section snippets

Participants

Ten healthy, young men (age, 22.6 ± 0.3 y; height, 170.9 ± 1.4 cm; weight, 68.1 ± 2.5 kg; peak oxygen uptake [VO2 peak], 44.5 ± 2.2 mL/min/kg) participated in this study. The men were normally physically active. They were informed of the experimental procedures and potential risks and provided written consent to participate in the study. All participants were free of any known neurologic, cardiovascular, and pulmonary disorders, as well color blindness and abnormal vision. All procedures were

Physiological responses

Changes in cardiovascular response and blood metabolites in the HCF and LCF conditions are shown in Table 2. Cardiovascular parameters and blood metabolites before CF consumption (i.e., pre-CF) were similar between the two conditions. With regard to changes in cardiovascular responses during the experimental session, HR analysis revealed a significant main effect for time (F1.76, 15.82 = 332.66, P < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.97); however, there were no significant main effects for condition (F1, 9 = 2.77, P

Discussion

The present study demonstrated that the magnitude of improvement in EF induced by moderate-intensity exercise for 30-min was equal for HCF and LCF consumption. However, HCF consumption, but not LCF consumption, showed an improvement in EF 30 min after consumption, and this effect remained present throughout the experimental session. Thus, HCF consumption enhanced postexercise EF improvement because of the early effect of HCF consumption on EF. In contrast, HCF consumption and moderate-intensity

Conclusion

The present study demonstrated that HCF consumption before moderate-intensity exercise could effectively enhance exercise-induced improvements in EF, but not in MF, as shown by the early improvement in EF induced by HCF consumption compared with LCF consumption. Therefore, we suggest that the combination of HCF consumption and aerobic exercise may be beneficial for improving cognitive function. To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate the beneficial effect of the combination of

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the time and effort expended by the volunteer participants.

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  • Cited by (0)

    This study was supported by the Honjo International Scholarship Foundation and Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (#15J04023 to HT; #15K16497 to TS; #15H03077 to TI; #15K12676 to Takeshi H). HT, TS, AI, TI, and Takeshi H conceived and designed the research. HT, TS, AI, ST, DT, and YH performed the experiments. HT analyzed the data. HT, TS, AI, Takafumi H, KG, KE, TI, and Takeshi H interpreted the results of experiments, HT and TS drafted the manuscript. Takafumi H, KG, KE, TI, and Takeshi H. edited and revised the manuscript. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.

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