Foods for Skin and Beauty

According to this trend of “eating for beauty,” foods and veggies are marketed as beauty enhancers. According to Euromonitor Inc., the global beauty-from-within market could grow to $5 billion by the end of this year. In their discussion of research on cocoa powder, noted for being high in the flavanols epicatechin and catechin, Angelo and Stahl documented that the double-blind intervention on 24 healthy young women (18-25 years of age) showed “improved photoprotection and skin structure” after drinking a flavanol-containing cocoa beverage daily for three months. The authors wrote: “As with the green tea beverage, high-flavanol cocoa powder diminished UV-induced erythema formation, increased microcirculation, improved skin structure (as roughness, scaling, volume and wrinkles) and reduced TEWL [trans-epidermal water loss].