Chocolate Good for Skin, Fact or Myth?

Chocolate Good for Skin, Fact or Myth? Friday, May 21, 2010 08:01 AM

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The world's largest chocolate maker said the company may have come up with chocolate bars that can fight wrinkles and slow the aging process, making it touch the food groups advanced to the appetite for a healthier life.
Consuming 20 grams of chocolate specially manufactured and packed with antioxidants, or flavanol, every day may help prevent wrinkles and make skin more radiant by encouraging flexibility and improve hydration, according to results of a study conducted by Barry Callebaut.
Consumers are becoming increasingly conscious about the nutritional value of what they eat, and Barry Callebaut statement delivered at the giant food companies like Nestle and Danone also entered the health food arena.
Dark chocolate was associated with a particular health benefits, such as help lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of stroke due to the high antioxidant content.
Group of the Swiss company has developed a way to maintain a flavanol found in cocoa beans during chocolate manufacturing process, enabling them to produce a single stem flavanol-rich cocoa, said Barry Callebaut chief innovation officer Hans Vriens in an interview.
"Chocolate and health can not seem to be united. But it is a very interesting problem: if I can eat something that I liked and was good for me, that's amazing," said the journalist was quoted as saying Vrien British news agency Reuters.
"Brown may be in the bottom of the list when people think of a more healthy foods," he added.
Smoking, pollution, caffeine and lack of sleep makes a contribution to the creation of free radicals that can damage the health of cells in the body and accelerate the aging process.
"There is much evidence that shows the flavanol slow the damage caused by free radicals," Kepler Capital Markets analysts said Jon Cox.
"Company maker of health and welfare to bring food into the various products and of course there is a market for chocolate on the health and welfare. We have seen how this has worked on dairy products, with products such as Danone and Bencol Antimel from Unilever," said Cox.
Functional cocoa market, which includes organic cocoa and diet, watching the growth of two-points, to easily pass through the growth of 1-2 percent which is currently seen in other parts cocoa market, Cox said.
But some experts doubt about the positive impact flavano on the skin.
"There is very little evidence that flavanol cocoa has a positive impact on blood flow. Flavanol can reduce blood pressure so it can have a positive impact on heart and blood vessel disease," said Richard Hurrell, Professor of Human Nutrition at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
"The impact that may be on the skin and cognitive performance is less strong. There is evidence, but it is less consistent. What might be the impact on the flow of blood is also what improve memory or the health of the skin in several studies," says Hurrell. (C003/A011 )