Causes of Acne - Does Eating Chocolate Cause Acne?

Introduction

Bet your mother or father told you that when you enter your teen years you will have to cut down or completely eliminate your consumption of chocolate. Why? Because you will develop a severe case of acne and subsequently have acne scars for the rest of your life.

Well let's explore that and see what causes acne to develop and why chocolate does not contribute to the development of acne.

How Acne Develops

Close to 50 million people in the United States will develop acne this year. Most of those who will suffer from this embarrassing condition will be teenagers going through puberty.

The direct cause of acne is not known, but it is believed to be triggered by a hormone imbalance in the human body. This is exactly what teenagers are undergoing when they undergo puberty, a significant hormone imbalance.

This is further supported by the fact that women who take certain birth control pills or are undergoing stress, also have a hormone imbalance and have a tendency to develop an acne breakout.

When you get this hormone imbalance, the body's skin will start to excrete sebum (oil) in larger amounts than normal. This excess oil will allow dead skin on the surface of the skin to clump together.

When this clumping occurs, it can block the pores allowing for an ideal environment for bacteria to grow. As the bacteria grows, the immune system responds by attacking the growing bacteria, causing inflammation, thus acne.

Chocolate And Acne

So when you consume chocolate it will need to either upset your hormones in your body or cause your body to secrete more body oils than normal. But so far research has shown that eating chocolate will not cause you to make more sebum or upset your hormones.

So there is no connection between acne and chocolate.

What Does Chocolate Do To The Body

There are a couple of negative aspects for consuming chocolate. It can make you fat if you consume too much and can cause you to have a sugar spike in your blood.

But if you consume chocolate in small doses, such as one square of dark chocolate a day, you can realize the following benefits:

Chocolate has been found to be beneficial to the brain.It is also beneficial to your body because it relieves hypertension by expanding or dilating your blood vessels.It also contains magnesium which helps convert your food to energy.

Conclusion

Acne is believed to be caused by a hormone imbalance in the body causing the body to secrete more sebum than normal. Chocolate has been found not to cause a hormone imbalance nor does it cause the body to secrete more sebum than normal.

Based on this, chocolate and acne are not connected, but dark chocolate, taken in moderation, can be beneficial to the body in general.

Jimmy C has been studying skin care for many years because of his skin problems in his youth and he is the Editor in Chief of a number of skin care web sites. Being a victim of acne in his younger days, he has researched this subject to help people prevent and stop acne. He has also studied many aspects of caring for the bodies skin and keeping it youthful and free of irritants.

For more information on caring for acne or other facial blemishes and keeping your youthful appearance go to his web sites at http://www.skinguidelines.com/p/causes-and-cures-for-acne.html or http://www.squidoo.com/cause-and-cures-of-acne.

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