We've pretty much proved that chocolate makes us happy… but what about smarter?

When we were kids, our mammies would have shot a piece of chocolate away from our grubby little hands and replaced it with a banana… but it turns out that chocolate could be just thing the to give our brains a major boost.

According to scientists at the University of L'Aquila in Italy, cocoa has "the potential to counteract cognitive decline and sustain cognitive abilities."

The study, which was published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition, says that flavanols are really good for our brains, and they're found by the bucket-load in cocoa.

The authors of the study, Valentina Socci and Michele Ferrara, found that those who consumed cocoa flavanols had improved memory, and were better able to focus and process visual information.

To further that, those who consumed chocolate regularly (which is anything from every five days to three months) had improved attention spans, better verbal fluency and were able to process information at a faster rate.

Not that we needed a reason to eat more chocolate, but let's just saw we won't feel as guilty munching on a Cadbury's Dairy Milk at lunch time.