If you're between 50 and 69 and eat a daily dose of cocoa flavanols for three months, you might get better at remembering small differences between similar things—and your brain’s memory area might get more blood flow, helping fight off some of the memory slowdown that comes with aging.

Eating cocoa with flavanols might boost blood flow to a part of your brain that helps you form memories, like when you're trying to remember names or facts.

Eating a one-time dose of cocoa with 415 mg of flavanols won’t make you better at remembering things you just saw, no matter how much cocoa you usually eat, your weight, or whether you’re male or female.

Eating a chocolate drink with a lot of cocoa flavanols can make more blood flow to certain parts of the brain in people aged 50 to 65, and this effect shows up about two hours later—compared to a drink with very little cocoa.

Eating foods rich in flavanols, like dark chocolate or berries, might help older people remember details better by boosting a specific part of the brain that separates similar memories—but it doesn’t help them remember things after a delay, which uses a different brain area.

Eating a one-time dose of cocoa with 415 mg of flavanols won’t make you better or worse at remembering visual details like shapes or colors, whether you’re just holding them in mind or actively updating them.