Food for thought; Does chocolate give you spots?

Roy Ballam
Sunday 27 December 1998 00:02 GMT
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Spots which appear on the face overnight can be a dramatic and decidedly unpleasant experience. In this season of excess it is particularly worrying that it might be caused, as your mother always warns, by all that chocolate you've been eating.

Spots occur when there is a blockage of the flow of oil from the skin's sebaceous follicles. The reasons for this blockage are not fully understood. However, studies have shown that there is little evidence to support the claim that chocolate has anything to do with these unexplained eruptions. One test carried out on patients with severe acne, who were convinced that chocolate was the culprit, showed that after heavy chocolate consumption there was no increases in their acne the following week.

Indeed, some researchers have established that chocolate has a powerful calming effect. This, they suggest, is due to the deep-rooted pleasures offered by its sweet, creamy texture and its generous serving of fat. Roy Ballam, British Nutrition Foundation

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