Cocoa and lutein improve skin health
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free skin care · Thu Sep 24, 2009 8:22 am

For those who want to eat their way to healthy skin, there is some good evidence that cocoa and lutein are beneficial for skin hydration, skin texture, elasticity, UV-protection etc.

Lutein is found in eggs and spinach and other green leafy vegetables, so "green smoothies" are actually proven effective for our skin.

Dark chocolate often contain a high amount of cocoa, but where I live, I find that many of the dark chocolate bars contain too much sugar, that causes glycation and is harmful to the skin. To avoid the sugar, I put two teaspoons of pure cocoa in my coffee, or I eat pure chocolate beans or nibs, bought from iherb.com. They are hard as nuts and have an "interesting" bitter chocolate taste.

Lutein study
An Italian study from 2007 involving 120 women aged between 25 and 50 demonstrated that a daily, oral supplementation with 10 mg FloraGLO Lutein, taken over 12 weeks, increases not only photo protective activity, but also skin hydration, lipid levels and elasticity, and a significant reduction in lipid peroxidation. The results were even more noticeable when the supplement was combined with topical lutein treatment. The study was randomised, double-blind and placebo-controlled. It has been published in the journal of Skin Pharmacology and Physiology.

Quote:

Improved skin photo-protection
Skin photo-protective activity improves 2.5 times when FloraGLO Lutein is used in application, and 4.2 times when the oral and topical treatments are combined - demonstrating a clear synergistic effect between the two treatments.

Improved skin elasticity
After 12 weeks of the topical treatment, or by combined oral supplement and topical application, the study shows an increase of skin elasticity of 68 % in comparison with the initial value. With oral supplementation alone, the increase is 56 %.

Improved skin hydration
Skin hydration improved by 82 %after 12 weeks of combined oral and topical treatment. Meanwhile those who took only oral supplementation saw an increase of 60 % while those who used only the topical treatment had an increase of 62 % after 12 weeks.

Effect on skin lipid levels
Finally, the study revealed a positive and significant effect on skin lipid levels. An increase of 63 % was reported for the patients who followed the combined treatment of FloraGLO Lutein while an increase of 46 % was noted among those who only took the oral treatment.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/70700.php

Cocoa study
German scientists have found that cocoa may help improve women's skin. A 2006 study that was published in the Journal of nutrition involved 24 women aged 18 to 65. One group drank a high-flavanol cocoa beverage (329 mg) once a day, while the other group consumed a beverage low in flavanols (27 mg). Various tests were conducted to evaluate skin properties: Sensitivity to UV irradiation, skin blood flow, skin structure and texture and skin hydration. The women who regularly consumed the high flavanol cocoa beverage showed significant improvement in these indicators of skin quality.

Article about the study
http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news/Cocoa-good-for-skin-3F-10498-1/

The study
http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/136/6/1565?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=cacao+skin&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT

free skin care · Sun Nov 29, 2009 2:55 pm

DarkMoon wrote:

Septembergirl,

Thanks this makes me happy for yet another reason to take all my supplements! Great Post. I really like the idea of using the pure cocoa powder added to my coffee! Thanks again for posting this. I take the lutein already for eye health.

Hi, DarkMoon.
I am glad you found my post useful. Enjoy your coffee-with-cocoa drink. I just thought it was a good idea to mix the two without adding any sugar, and then I happened to quite like it. Very Happy

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