Two squares of 85% after dinner and a little voice saying "this is basically medicine". In Part 2, I pull that voice apart.

We go past the "what" and into the "why": how epicatechin works on the lining of your blood vessels, why the memory research keeps shifting, and why so many headlines get the actual findings wrong.

In this episode:

- The nitric oxide mechanism, and why a wider blood vessel doesn't automatically mean a sharper brain

- Inside COSMOS: the 2x2 design, the cocoa result that flatlined, the multivitamin twist, and the funding caveats worth knowing

- The 85% vs 70% chocolate study: mood, gut bacteria and the gut-brain axis (promising, but only 48 people over three weeks)

- Why "cocoa processed with alkali" on the label changes everything

- What the "chocolate buzz" really is: caffeine and th ...