Eat some chocolate and your skin will glow!!
Well, it could be true, and there is much research
showing benefits for your skin if you do eat
chocolate—but only the right kind. Chocolate has rich
amounts of flavonoids, a subgroup of a large class called
polyphenols, which are the same antioxidant compounds
found in fruits, vegetables and whole grains that are
known to help lower blood pressure. Some studies
show that chocolate might even help protect us from
UV damaging rays that cause skin cancer. A group of
researchers in Germany have shown that ingesting dark
chocolate, which is rich in cocoa solids and flavonoids,
can help fight skin cancer. Currently their findings are
preliminary because they come from a trial of only 24
women. Chocolate, these scientists note, is just the
latest in a range of antioxidant-rich foods holding the
potential to shield skin from sun damage. It may boost
your skin’s defense against the sun by up to 25 percent
Wilhelm Stahl of Heinrich-Heine University in
Düsseldorf and his colleagues, decided to investigate
whether the flavonoids in chocolate might offer skin
protection. Flavonoids work as potent antioxidants.
The researchers recruited women between the ages
of 18 and 65. Each volunteer received packets of a
dry powder to mix each day with 100 milliliters of hot
water—approximately half cup. Half of the women
received powder containing 329 milligrams of flavanols,
a type of flavonoid, per serving. The rest got powder
delivering a mere 27 mg of flavanols per serving. The
primary flavanols were epicatechin and catechin.
One study involved irradiating each woman’s skin
with slightly more ultraviolet (UV) light than they had
before the trial began, to turn her skin red. The skin of
the women who received the flavonoid-rich cocoa did
not redden nearly as much as the skin of subjects who
drank the flavonoid-poor beverage. Women getting the
abundant flavonoids also had skin that was more smooth
and more moist than the other women. It is known
that overexposure to UV light can foster the development
of skin cancer. Stahl’s team says it is possible
that a dietary source, from dark chocolate, can offer
some innate skin protection on sunny days when an
individual doesn’t use sunscreen. Most flavonoids absorb
UV light, and the researchers say this might haveplayed a role in the skin response. However, skin reddening
is also an inflammatory response, and other researchers
have linked consumption of flavonoids to increasing
the body’s natural defense mechanisms to decrease
inflammatory agents.
In another study, researchers showed the women
getting the larger doses of flavonoids, blood flow
doubled in the skin during the course of the trial in tissue
1 millimeter below the surface, and increased by
37.5 percent in tissue 7 to 8 mm deep. Similar improvements
in blood flow through big blood vessels have been
witnessed after people have eaten dark chocolate.
Additionally, after 12 weeks of consuming the
flavanol-rich cocoa, the women’s skin was 16 percent
denser, 11 percent thicker, 13 percent moister, 30 percent
less rough, and 42 percent less scaly than it was
at the beginning of the experiment. Although the mechanism
for most of these benefits remains unclear, the
Düsseldorf researchers suspect that improved blood
flow was a contributor. Stahl’s group reports, flavonoid
quantities in the richer cocoa were “similar to those
found in 100 grams [a little over 3 ounces] of dark
chocolate.”
The new skin-protection data are more than a curiosity,
says Hasan Mukhtar, director of dermatology
research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The
results suggest, he says, that dietary flavonoids reach
the upper layers of skin and “have the ability to counteract
the oxygen free radicals generated as a consequence
of exposure to UV radiation.”
UV exposure leads not only to impaired immunity
and accelerated aging in skin, but also to cancer, especially
in light-skinned people, Mukhtar points out. Work
by his group and others has shown that UV light triggers
many reactions in the body that can lead to tissue
damage.
In several papers, Mukhtar and his colleagues have
found evidence that natural botanical antioxidants—
such as those just tested in cocoa—can inhibit harmful,
UV-triggered chemical pathways in the body.
Other researchers point out that the cocoa drink
used in these studies were specially processed to retain
much higher levels of flavanols than are typically
found in commercially-available cocoa drinks; so it is
unlikely that drinking more hot chocolate would produce
a similar effect. Studies using milk chocolate did
not show similar benefits.
Mars Inc., the candy company that has been experimenting
with dark-chocolate products rich in flavonoids,
supplied the cocoa powder and partially funded
some experiments. Harold H. Schmitz, the chief science
officer of Mars Inc., claims that the proprietary
recipe for the product retains nearly all of the naturalcocoa
flavonoids that most chocolate loses in the cooking
process and gets washes out. Working in collaboration
with top research institutions throughout the
world, the company continues to lead the way in exploring
the full nutritional and medical potential of
cocoa’s naturally occurring flavanols. For more than
15 years, Mars’ commitment to research is evidenced
by the 85 peer-reviewed research publications on cocoa
and the more than 30 patents held by Mars scientists.
Scientists at Mars, Incorporated developed a patented
process called Cocoapro® that helps retain consistent
level of flavanols that occur naturally in cocoa
beans. The flavanol-rich beverage in this study was
prepared using the Cocoapro process to enable the elevated
levels of cocoa flavanols.
Mars products that
are made with the Cocoapro process include Dove®
Dark Chocolate and CocoaVia®, a new line of heart
healthy snacks that are guaranteed to contain at least
100 mg of cocoa flavanols per serving.
For more information on the many research studies
on cocoa flavanols, visit http://www.cocoapro.com.
Chocolate skin care?
But it’s not necessary to ingest chocolate to get the
benefits—you can smear it all over yourself for skin
nourishment. The high antioxidants in chocolate protect
the skin against free radicals, which cause wrinkles.
An increasing number of scientific studies support the
value of applying antioxidants directly to the surface of
the skin to combat free radical damage. What exactly
are free radicals and how do they damage skin? Free
radicals cause skin cell damage and make the cell membrane
on our skin become more permeable, allowing
the cells to dehydrate (lose water). The top offenders
of free radical damage to the skin are: UV sunlight,
smog, toxins, cigarette smoke, X-rays, drugs, and other
stressors. Science clearly substantiates the role that
free radicals play in causing skin aging and the fact
that topically applied antioxidants confer significant protection
and can even partially reverse some aspects of
skin aging. A leading scientist in the field of skin health
and free radicals reported “topical application of antioxidants
(i.e. vitamin C, E, DMAE, and chocolate etc.) |
