Chocolate is not exactly brain food, Japan admits

Shoddy research behind report backed by government and confectionery maker Meiji

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Cocoa beans and chocolate bars at a shop in Tokyo. The government has backed off claims that eating cacao-rich chocolate could rejuvenate the brain.

TOMOYUKI ENDO, Nikkei staff writer

TOKYO -- Facing criticism over a government-backed report that said chocolate could reverse brain aging, the Japanese Cabinet Office admitted that the claim was "inappropriate." 

The report, released in January last year, was compiled by a government-sponsored team and confectionery maker Meiji, part of Meiji Holdings. It said that eating cacao-rich chocolate for four weeks could expand and rejuvenate the brain's cerebral cortex.

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