Drink cocoa for healthier skin

As a person who loves chocolate, imagine how happy I was when I found out that the Journal of Nutrition just published a study about the skin benefits of drinking cocoa! Yummy cocoa plus good skin!? Sign me up!

Researchers have found that certain components of cocoa may help improve the skin's hydration, may decrease skin roughness and peeling/scaling, and may also help the skin more effectively defend against UV damage. These skin boosting benefits were attributable to the presence of flavanols, which are particularly rich in cocoa and have previously been found to improve blood flow and functioning of the blood vessels.

In this study, 24 women were assigned to one of two groups. One group drank a high-flavanol cocoa beverage, while the other group consumed the same amount of low-flavanol cocoa over a 12 week period. During this 12 week research cycle, participants were tested three times on the skin quality indicators of skin blood flow, sensitivity to UV radiation, skin hydration, and skin structure and texture.

Women in the high-flavanol group demonstrated significant improvement on all of these indicators of skin quality. Those in the low-flavanol group did not improve on any of these measures. Skin texture, hydration and structure seemed to improve with flavanol consumption.

Though that's not the only exciting finding. This study is the first to suggest that regular consumption of cocoa flavanols may help the skin's defense against UV light. In this study, participants in the high-flavanol group showed a reduction in skin sensitivity when exposed to artificial sunlight. This may be due, in part, to the improvement in blood flow to the skin associated with flavanol consumption.

Regular consumption of flavanol-rich cocoa has been shown in other studies to increase blood flow to the skin, and these outcomes were maintained as long as cocoa flavanols continued to be consumed.

So what this means for me? I just might give up my morning cup of tea for a cup of flavanol-rich cocoa with yummy marshmallows. That would give me a really sweet start to every day.