Sun Safe Foods: Dark Chocolate for Internal Sun Protection

This week Dr. Clower will be sharing the top 5 food-sources for internal sun protection. To kick things off, we’re starting with dark chocolate! Yes… you read that right!

The cocoa in the dark chocolate that you love to love can also protect your skin from UV damage from the sun. In a study conducted in London, researchers gave two very happy subject groups chocolate to eat for 12 weeks. However, one of them received a high-flavanol chocolate, such as you might get with a high-cocoa chocolate or dark chocolate. The second received a low-flavanol chocolate, such as you might get with lighter milk chocolates and “chocolate” confections. After 12 weeks, they tested the skin of these participants with a challenge of UV light to see whether the cocoa flavanols did anything more that make the subjects happy every day.

Over the 12 weeks of chocolate eating, the skin of those who ate the low-flavanol version was no more or less protected from UV radiation. No change. However, those who ate the high-flavanol chocolate doubled their protection compared to the baseline.  Why would this be? What explanation can make that make sense?

One rationale may come from the fact that high-cocoa chocolate can increase micro-circulation in the skin itself. Increased blood flow to the topmost layers of the skin (those within only one millimeter of the surface) can provide the healthy oxygenation your skin needs to help protect itself.

Another potential reason for the additional skin protection could be the particular polyphenols (catechins and epicatechins) themselves. These specific antioxidants are also found in high concentrations in drinks like green tea, which have a well-established effect on suppressing the effects of photoaging, UV-induced radiation, immunosuppression, and carcinogenic activity.

Conclusion: High-cocoa chocolate is amazing for your heart, your mind, and now even your skin. In fact, you should treat it like your daily vitamin (vitamin Ch)!