“I eat Nutella and I don’t have pimples!” : Here is the incredible story

In this article we will try to understand what is the relationship between acne and chocolate, therefore also Nutella. There is too much fake news on this vast topic, too much of it being talked about wrongly and too little in a good way. Acne is a very common skin disease that mainly affects teenagers of different age groups: between 10 and 16 years old, about 28 to 65% of people suffer from it; and between 16 and 18 years old 79-95%. At the base of this annoying pathology, there are many triggering factors including the hormonal structure, genetic and environmental factors such as familiarity perhaps associated with a lifestyle and poor diet.

Teenage-type acne generally tends to resolve in the years following adolescence either completely spontaneously or through the use of medication. But why, instead, as adults, do we often find ourselves battling with a pimple on our face? When this pathology is not in the chronic form, we can note that there is a correlation between the diet we eat and the appearance of acne. Studies, although still in progress and therefore not entirely clear, report that the formation of acne is anyway mainly due to the consumption of foods with a high glycemic index.

Therefore, basing your diet almost exclusively on refined carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, white rice and simple sugars, leads to constantly high levels of insulin in our body, which in the long term can then turn into a condition called insulin resistance that very much favors the formation of various metabolic pathologies. Insulin is a very important hormone for our body because it allows the use of glucose by the cells, which without it could not function, but it is clear that, like anything else, an excess would be harmful for our body.

Several studies have shown that the consumption of chocolate has no impact on the development of acne, but rather that, thanks to the presence of flavonoid antioxidants, it even prevents its formation. However, we are talking about extra dark chocolate which contains a quantity of cocoa equal to or greater than 70%. The more bitter the chocolate tastes, the higher the amount of flavonoids will be (eg 100 grams of dark chocolate contains about 50-60 mg). Flavonoids have many functions, ranging from anti-allergic action to anti-infectious and even anti-tumor action, but above all anti-inflammatory. And for this reason, therefore, that the consumption of dark chocolate but also of Nutella, cannot be attributed to the appearance of acne since it actually helps to prevent its formation.