Acne and Diet – Can Diet Cause Acne?
Is there a link between acne and diet? Would eating fatty fast food cause those pesky pimples? Most medical authorities deny such a link. They would say that chocolate or fried foods do not cause acne and that it is just one of those myths about acne.
However, try asking acne sufferers that question and more often than not, they would say otherwise. Those big red zits that appeared overnight must have been caused by that chocolate bar or nuts they ate the day before. To them, the correlation seems just too strong to be dismissed outright. Surely some foods must be triggering their acne?
Indeed, whereas the answer to that question before is a “no,” recent studies now suggest that the answer is a more realistic, “maybe.”
Acne and sugar
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
One study conducted by the Royal Melbourne Hospital and RMIT University in Australia found a link between high glycemic index foods and acne. High glycemic index foods are those that cause a rapid rise in blood sugar and insulin, like sweets, soda drinks, potatoes, white rice, white bread, and other types of refined carbohydrates.
Researchers have found that after 12 weeks, teenagers who eat a lower glycemic diet of whole carbohydrates and high protein showed a fifty percent reduction of acne compared to the control group who continued eating a typical high- glycemic diet.
It is believed that a high- glycemic diet causes a rapid rise in metabolic glucose which gets converted into certain types of fat that increase the activity of the sebaceous glands of the skin.
Acne and Dairy
Another study, reported in the February 2005 Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, revealed that based on the response of more than 47,000 women participating in the national Nurses' Health study II, milk and dairy products may trigger acne outbreaks. The researchers think that the reason could be in the hormones naturally present in cow milk.
Other Foods
Fish and other seafood contain a high level of iodine which is also believed to make acne worse, though not necessarily trigger them. Other iodine-rich foods are seaweeds, yogurt, cow's milk, strawberries, and eggs.
Considering these recent findings on food and acne, if you're an acne sufferer it makes perfect sense to watch what you eat. Stay away from high- glycemic foods (which include most fast food), dairy products, seafood, and anything else that seems to trigger those breakouts. And yes, these include fatty foods and chocolate especially if you do notice pimple breakouts a day or two after eating them. That would be the closest thing to an acne diet that works for you.
If you are disciplined enough to avoid these foods that you observe to trigger acne, you could lessen those embarrassing episodes of acne that require expensive and time-consuming treatments.
Sources:
Smith R., Mann N., Braue A., Mäkeläinen H., Varigos G. "The effect of a high-protein, low glycemic-load diet versus a conventional, high glycemic-load diet on biochemical parameters associated with acne vulgaris: A randomized, investigator-masked, controlled trial." Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (2007); 57 (2): 247-256.
Adebamowo CA, Spiegelman D, Berkey CS, Danby W, Rockett HH, Colditz GA, Willet WC, Homes MD. "Milk consumption and acne in adolescent girls." Dermatology Online Journal 2006; 12(4):1.
Adembamowo CA, Spiegelman D, Berkey CS, Danby FW, Rockett HH, Colditz GA, Willett WC, Holmes MD. "Milk consumption and acne in teenage boys." Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology 2008; 58(5): 787-793.
Adebamowo CA, Spiegelman D, Danby W, Frazier AL, Willett WC, Holmes MD. "High school dietary dairy intake and teenage acne." Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology 2005; 52(2): 207-214.
