Say it isn’t so. Chocolate can’t cause acne. It’s the most delicious food on the planet. How can something so good be bad for your skin?
But then… why does your face erupt in pimples every time you eat a little too much? You don’t want to believe the rumours but those pimples need to go… fast. If chocolate is the culprit then… well, let’s say you want to be really, really sure it is before giving it up.
Here’s what science says about chocolate causing acne:
Most Chocolate Is High In Sugar
You need three things to make chocolate: cocoa powder, cocoa butter and sugar. Problem is, sugar is usually at the top of the list!
That’s no bueno. Sugar is pure energy. Fuel your body can use straight away. And that sends your blood sugar levels on a rollercoaster ride.
Your body doesn’t like rollercoasters (I know, right?). To stop the ride early and bring your sugar levels back under control, your body releases a bunch of hormones, like insulin and IGF-1.
And these hormones are linked to acne. Here’s why:
- They make your skin pump out more sebum than usual
- They make your pores bigger so more sebum and dead cells (the food acne bacteria feed on) get stuck in them
- They aggravate acne
A sprinkle of sugar is ok. But if sugar tops the list of your chocolate bar, leave it on the shelf.
Most Chocolate Has A Lot Of Milk, Too
Technically, you don’t need milk to make chocolate. But a lot of chocolate bars and snacks out there have plenty of it. And if you’re prone to acne, this is bad news for you.
You see, mammals (both cows and humans) naturally produce milk when they have to feed their babies. So, to make cows produce milk all the time, farmers must feed them with hormones.
These extra hormones end up in your milk, giving you the dreaded “milk spots”. And if that milk ends up in chocolate, it’s not a stretch of the imagination to think it’ll give you “chocolate spots” too.
There’s more. Milk often contains A1 casein, a protein that, when broken down into casomorphin, can cause inflammation. And guess what acne is? An inflammatory disease.
Chocolate with too much milk is a no-no, too.
What About Dark Chocolate?
Dark chocolate? You mean the bitter kind with little sugar and no milk. Surely, that can’t be bad, too?
Here’s where it gets a tricky. A 2014 study shows that a single binge of cocoa powder increases the numbers of pimples by a whopping 169%!
It’s true there are a couple of problems with this study. Only 14 men took part in it (women were excluded so hormonal cycles wouldn’t influence the results). That’s too low to make a statistical difference.
Plus, there was no control group. Instead of dividing the participants into two groups and giving cocoa powder pills to one group and gelatin pills to the other group, the scientists randomly distributed both to everyone (what were they thinking?!).
That means that most of the participants ate a large amount of chocolate in one day. And by day 4, their acne had skyrocketed.
While the flaws in the study make it hard to determine whether the high dose of pure cocoa powder was what aggravated acne, it raises questions. One theory proposes that the moderately high amount of FODMAPs (a blend of simple and complex sugars) naturally found in cocoa powder can aggravate acne in people with gut problems (and acne patients usually have gut problems…).
Until science tests this theory more, go easy on dark chocolate, too. A little bit of it is healthy. Dark chocolate has plenty of flavonoids and other antioxidants that can help you keep wrinkles at bay.
Just don’t binge on it like the participants in that study did. Too much of a good thing is never a good thing.
The Bottom Line
It’s hard to tell whether chocolate causes acne. Although studies seem to show a correlation, a lot of it depends on what type of chocolate you eat, how much and how often. Skip the commercial kind loaded with milk and sugar and stick to dark chocolate. Just don’t binge on it!
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