Champagne and MemoryIf you’ve been online at all in the past week, it’s highly likely that you’ve seen a version of this article that caused the internet to explode, proclaiming that two to three glasses of Champagne a week will aid in one retaining and even improving their memory. Heck, it even prevents Alzheimer’s! But how can these claims be made in the first place, since most of us start to feel a bit hazy following a few glasses of bubbly, not sharper.

It all centers around a study that involves Phenolic Acids and the compound’s ability to improve a male rat’s conquering of a maze. In 2013 researchers at the University of Reading in England decided to test their hypothesis that the high Phenolic compounds inside Champagne could be beneficial to brain activity. These compounds mainly exist in red wine, but thanks to the fact that two of Champagne’s main ingredients are actually red grapes – Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, the Phenolics exist here as well, and who doesn’t love Champagne. (Though if you weren’t a fan of Champagne and were looking to cure your Phenolic fix, you could also find them in substances like parsley, peanuts and blueberries.)

The researchers gave the rats what is equivalent to a glass of Champagne a week, and they found that those who received the bubbly were a bit better at conquering the maze and remembering where treats had been hidden, compared to those rats that were given no Champagne at all. Thus they concluded the Phenolics inside the bubbly were a benefit to the rats and the study made a bit of noise two years ago when it was published. Then for some reason this past week, the internet once again got ahold of it and everybody freaked out.

It’s important to note however that this was a study done on rats, not humans, so there is no true way of knowing if Champagne will actually be beneficial to humans until human studies are completed. That being said, if any universities are thinking of conducting this vital research, feel free to sign us up.