Dietary flavanols restore hippocampal-dependent memory in older adults with lower diet quality and lower habitual flavanol consumption

Brickman, A. M., Yeung, L.-K., Alschuler, D. M., Ottaviani, J. I., Kuhnle, G. G. C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8081-8931, Sloan, R. P., Luttman-Gibson, H., Copeland, T., Schroeter, H., Sesso, H. D., Manson, J. E., Wall, M. and Small, S. A. (2023) Dietary flavanols restore hippocampal-dependent memory in older adults with lower diet quality and lower habitual flavanol consumption. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 120 (23). e2216932120. ISSN 1091-6490 doi: 10.1073/pnas.2216932120

Abstract/Summary

Dietary flavanols are food constituents found in certain fruits and vegetables that have been linked to cognitive aging. Previous studies suggested that consumption of dietary flavanols might specifically be associated with the hippocampal-dependent memory component of cognitive aging and that memory benefits of a flavanol intervention might depend on habitual diet quality. Here, we tested these hypotheses in the context of a large-scale study of 3,562 older adults, who were randomly assigned to a 3-y intervention of cocoa extract (500 mg of cocoa flavanols per day) or a placebo [(COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study) COSMOS-Web, NCT04582617]. Using the alternative Healthy Eating Index in all participants and a urine-based biomarker of flavanol intake in a subset of participants [n = 1,361], we show that habitual flavanol consumption and diet quality at baseline are positively and selectively correlated with hippocampal-dependent memory. While the prespecified primary end point testing for an intervention-related improvement in memory in all participants after 1 y was not statistically significant, the flavanol intervention restored memory among participants in lower tertiles of habitual diet quality or habitual flavanol consumption. Increases in the flavanol biomarker over the course of the trial were associated with improving memory. Collectively, our results allow dietary flavanols to be considered in the context of a depletion–repletion paradigm and suggest that low flavanol consumption can act as a driver of the hippocampal-dependent component of cognitive aging.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/112058
Identification Number/DOI	10.1073/pnas.2216932120
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy > Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences > Human Nutrition Research Group
Publisher	National Academy of Sciences
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