Eating chocolate everyday might actually improve skin

It’s the age-old heartbreak that the foods we love the most tend to be bad for our health. Thankfully, there’s hope on the horizon. It looks like we might be able to throw all our preconceived notions of chocolate being bad for our skin out the window as a number of Cambridge University scientists have created a chocolate that is not only good for skin, it can actually improve it. The creation in question is Esthechoc, an antioxidant-rich product that when eaten every day (yes, every day!), promises to leave skin looking younger and healthier in under a month.

The process of creating the skin-loving chocolate has been 10 years in the making as the scientists from the university have worked to harness the polyphenols present in dark chocolate and combine it with the antioxidant properties found in salmon. Fortunately, they have been able to do just that, which has resulted in a chocolate where each piece comes in at 38 calories. Don’t worry, it doesn’t actually taste anything like salmon.

“There are hundreds of studies that show that dark chocolate is good for you, but the problem there is that the data shows that you have to eat 300 to 400 calories of it a day in order to benefit from the antioxidants,” says Jay Scherer, the Vice President of Business Development at Cambridge Micelle and Chocolate Technologies. Additionally Scherer added that the same thing goes for salmon. While we’re aware of the benefits associated with the fish (even Victoria Beckham eats it every single day), it doesn’t necessarily feature as an everyday food in most of our diets.

In order to get the best of both worlds, the scientists claim that if one piece of Esthechoc is eaten every day, the same amount of antioxidants in a 300gram piece of salmon, and a 300-400gram piece of dark chocolate will be ingested, according to Scherer. Not only is the chocolate low in calories, it’s also low in sugar content and is gluten-free, meaning that just about everyone can happily consume it.

In terms of the physical benefits it reaps on the skin, Scherer says, “In our clinical trial, the data shows that after eating one piece a day for 21 days, your daily skin functions like microcirculation, cell regeneration and oxygenation of the tissue and blood go back 20 years, behaving as that of a 20 or 30 year old.”

At the moment Esthechoc is only available online in the US, however if the product lives up to its (incredible) claims, we’re sure we’ll be seeing it on Australian shores in no time.

In the meantime, incorporate these six foods into your diet for better skin.

Image credit: Getty