Download Barbajada (coffee, milk and chocolate): the secret to the Nobel Prize

Letter
Barbajada (coffee, milk and chocolate): the secret to the
Nobel Prize
Francesco Brigo,1,2 Raffaele Nardone2,3
10.1136/eb-2014-101751
1
Section of Clinical Neurology,
Department of Neurological and
Movement Sciences, University
of Verona, Verona, Italy
2
Department of Neurology, Franz
Tappeiner Hospital, Merano,
Italy
3
Department of Neurology,
Christian Doppler Klinik,
Paracelsus Medical University,
Salzburg, Austria
Correspondence to:
Dr Francesco Brigo
Section of Clinical Neurology
Department of Neurological and
Movement Sciences, University
of Verona, Piazzale L.A. Scuro,
Verona 10-37134, Italy;
[email protected]
120
Is there any food that may be useful in enhancing
intelligence? Recently, a strong correlation was found
between national chocolate consumption and the
number of Nobel Prizes a country has won.1 Taken
seriously, this result suffers from a great deal of ecological bias, but it is nevertheless a convenient excuse
for eating more chocolate. Interestingly, the same
strong correlation was later found for milk
consumption.2
However, unlike chocolate and milk, caffeine is commonly consumed in an effort to enhance cognitive performance. Hence, we aimed to evaluate whether coffee
consumption also correlates positively with cognitive
function. We therefore used data on Current Worldwide
Annual Coffee Consumption per capita (http://chartsbin.
com/view/581) and data on Nobel Prizes won by countries worldwide.1 We found a significant linear correlation (r2=0.508; p<0.0001) between coffee consumption
per capita (in 2008) and Nobel Prizes per capita.
Surprisingly, the association we found had a strength of
the same order as that found for chocolate (r2=0.625).
The strong correlation is prone to the same biases
and caveats which apply to the correlation with chocolate and milk consumption. However, caffeine consumption has been demonstrated to be inversely
associated with cognitive decline in elderly men3 probably because of its beneficial effects on working
memory4 and has even been suggested as a possible
treatment in cases of established Alzheimer’s disease.5
Evid Based Med June 2014 | volume 19 | number 3 |
The secret to winning the Nobel Prize is now definitely demonstrated: the Barbajada, an Italian mixture of
coffee, milk and chocolate. Perhaps it is no co-incidence
that the genial Italian musician Gioacchino Rossini went
into raptures about it!
Acknowledgements This article is dedicated to the
memory of the Italian conductor Claudio Abbado
(1933–2014).
Contributors FB designed, drafted and wrote the final
manuscript. FB performed the statistical analyses. RN
critically revised the manuscript.
Competing interests None.
References
1. Messerli FH. Chocolate consumption, cognitive function, and
Nobel laureates. N Engl J Med 2012;367:1562–4.
2. Linthwaite S, Fuller GN. Milk, chocolate and Nobel Prizes. Pract
Neurol 2013;13:63.
3. van Gelder BM, Buijsse B, Tijhuis M, et al. Coffee consumption is
inversely associated with cognitive decline in elderly European
men: the FINE Study. Eur J Clin Nutr 2007;61:226–32.
4. Klaassen EB, de Groot RH, Evers EA, et al. The effect of caffeine
on working memory load-related brain activation in
middle-aged males. Neuropharmacology 2013;64:160–7.
5. Arendash GW, Mori T, Cao C, et al. Caffeine reverses cognitive
impairment and decreases brain amyloid-beta levels in aged
Alzheimer’s disease mice. J Alzheimers Dis 2009;17:661–80.