If you're applying that cocoa butter on your tummy and thighs to prevent stretch marks, forget it. A newly conducted study indicates that it doesn't help at all.

In the present study, Dr. A. H Nassar and colleagues sought to settle this issue by examining the stretch marks that arose in 210 pregnant women who were randomly assigned to apply cocoa butter or inactive "placebo" to their abdomen, breasts, and thighs once daily starting during the first trimester of pregnancy.

Eighty-three percent of women completed the study, Nassar, from the American University of Beirut Medical Center in Lebanon and colleagues note.

Overall, 45 percent of cocoa butter-treated women developed stretch marks compared with 49 percent of women given placebo lotion. Although the percentage is slightly lower in the cocoa butter group, from a statistical standpoint, the difference was not considered significant, meaning that it may have simply arisen by chance.

There was also no difference between the groups in the severity of their stretch marks.

"Our findings do not support the use of cocoa butter lotion for the prevention of striae gravidarum," Nassar and colleagues conclude.

But they say that further studies should be conducted in other populations. Perhaps it is effective to women of certain skin types?

But even if they don't prevent stretch marks, I would encourage you to go ahead, indulge and take care of your skin. Choose your favorite skin cream. At the very least, it will help relieve itching and dryness.