How to have your cake and eat it too this Easter! (skin-friendly edition)

When most people think about Easter nowadays, they may think of daffodils, baby chicks and frolicking lambs….but would not forget CHOCOLATE!! Despite knowing that the whole Spring festival has become super- commercialised, few people can resist indulging in at least one Easter Egg – even if it is over-priced and with much less chocolate for your money.

But what if you have problem skin and are struggling to eat the right kind of diet to help keep your spots at bay, does this mean that you shouldn’t have an Easter Egg at all?

A recent study reviewed all the evidence from 2009 – 2020 to look more closely at the evidence for dietary factors exacerbating acne. The conclusions reached do suggest that high glycaemic index foods (which includes sweets and chocolate) cause a spike in blood sugar when eaten and are likely to be acne -promoting; whereas acne-protective factors are found in lower glycaemic foods such as some fruits and vegetables. However, there was no absolute link found between chocolate consumption itself and acne.

Other evidence does suggest that it may actually be more down to the sugar content within the chocolate which causes problems for the skin – there is a higher sugar content in both white and milk chocolate but much less so in dark chocolate. Another benefit with dark chocolate is that not only do people tend to eat much less of it at any one time but it also curbs the sweet cravings. 

Taking this into consideration, along with the other dietary benefits of dark chocolate (it contains a high level of antioxidants), we could conclude that dark chocolate might be okay.

So – a good compromise over Easter which could stop you from worrying about the effects of those chocolate eggs on your skin would be to stick to a dark chocolate treat (at least 70% cacao) on the day and double up on the fruit and veggies for the rest of the month – who knows your skin may actually thank-you!!