All through the teen years, and even now, the myth is always nagging in the back of my mind. Eating chocolate, among other horrible things like French fries and pizza, will make me break out. Chocolate is bad for my skin.
Well thank God for the Germans!
Apparently, there is a link between skin health and cocoa flavonols, those compounds that are increasingly associated with cardiovascular and other good health. In skin, the flavonols have been shown to reduce skin's sensitivity to UV radiation, increased blood flow to skin, and improvement of skin texture by increasing its density, thickness, and hydration.
Researchers at Heinrich-Heine University in Dusseldorf, Germany supplemented the regular diet of 24 female volunteers with healthy, normal skin with either a high flavanol or low flavanol cocoa powder drink dissolved in water. The women did nothing else to change their diets during hte 12-week trial.
Now this doesn't mean I can go out and start noshing on Snickers bars all in the name of wrinkle-free, youthful skin. But, it's a start.
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