Skin Care and Chocolate: How are they Related?

Chocolate has many known benefits. It seems like we can add a new benefit to the list! Medical News Today recently published an article detailing this new benefit. I have posted the main points in this blog post.

Packed full of antioxidants, chocolate is increasingly gaining a place among the circle of healthful foods. Some studies show that chocolate may protect the skin from damaging sunlight. However, not all researchers agree.

The health benefits are thought to be due to the high levels of antioxidants found in one of the nation’s favorite snacks.

But what about our skin health? Can it prevent skin aging, sunburn, and possibly even skin cancer?

A study by led Prof. Wilhelm Stahl – from the Institute for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany – and colleagues investigated whether higher antioxidant levels in chocolate could improve the skin’s ability to withstand damage from UV radiation.

For the study, 24 women consumed a chocolate drink that contained either 27 milligrams of flavanols (normal chocolate) or 329 milligrams (high-antioxidant) each morning for 12 weeks.

Prof. Stahl found that the skin of participants who had consumed the high-oxidant chocolate drink did not become as red when exposed to a controlled dose of UV radiation.

What the authors found correlated with Prof. Stahl’s results; the skin of the participants who had eaten the high-antioxidant chocolate was not as sensitive to UV damage.

However, contrary to the findings of Prof. Stahl and Dr. Williams, the consumption of high-antioxidant chocolate did not have a protective effect in the participants.

For now, it might be best to rely on other forms of skin protection and simply enjoy chocolate as part of a healthful, balanced diet.

Stay tuned to our blog for more great content like this one!