Does chocolate always give you spots?

                                  
             

   Provided you eat a balanced diet, chocolate won't give you spots.

Chocolate on its own does not produce spots-except as a result of an allergic reaction to cocoa. Ordinary spots arise because the skin produces too much sebum. Sebum builds up in the hair follicles and forms unsightly blackheads or becomes inflamed and creates pimples. A shift in the body's hormonal balance is mainly responsible for excess sebum, which is why pimples and acne are most likely to develop during puberty.
    However, recent studies show that diet does have some influence, although fatty foods, which have always been thought to be a culprit, don't actually cause acne. This is a problem that rarely occurs among native populations with diets rich in fat, such as the Arctic Inuit. In the western world, however, acne is a widespread skin complaint, and members of native populations don't usually develop it until they move into a modern city.
      Evidently, western eating habits can encourage skin impurities. Scientists suspect that a diet rich in simple carbohydrates is the indirect trigger for acne. The consumption of large amounts of sugar leads to a continuous release of insulin, which creates a shift in the hormonal balance and thereby stimulates the production of sebum.
   This would seem to suggest that chocolate does at least encourage spots, particularly the high-sugar, low-cocoa varieties. However, chocolate won't do any harm to those whose diet is based on complex carbohydrates and small amounts of sugar and white flour.