Acne & Food

Acne breakouts related to diet are often discarded as myths. I have seen three dermatologists and a skin surgeon over the past few months to ask advice and have treatments done. All of them told me acne is never a direct result of what you eat, except for one doctor, who told me the only thing that influences outbreaks is shellfish. However, many people still believe their breakouts are caused by what they eat.

I was just wondering if anyone here experiences breakouts they believe are diet-related, and what they do when they occur. Thanks.

i usually have breakouts when my diet is high in fat.. so i try to keep it low. also, when i'm not drinking enough water my face gets really dry and flaky.

anyways, i think as long as you're eating a good amount of real healthy foods and not junk/processed stuff you'll be fine. if you find you break out with a specific type of diet (like me with fats), then change it around.

well when i stopped giving into peer pressure that caused me to eat alot of junk food like chips and and fast food, all the pimples from my face disappeared! about a year later, when my binging problem began, they came out again. so i dont know what to believe, its supposedly not related, but when im eating healthy i have less pimples..

My mother (who has a beautiful skin) breaks out in spots if she eats a lot of chocolate.  I'm similar.  I heard once that excess sugar in the diet and therefore excess insulin in the bloodstream can set up a chain reaction which results in excess sebum (oil) in the skin... and cause spots.   People with PCOS (which is made worse by excess insulin) often report spots as one of the symptoms and find things improve with dietary changes.  Acne I think is a different condition to 'spots' and needs antibiotic treatments etc.   So I do think there is a link but that it may not be universal. 

A recent study showed that teens on a typical high GI teen diet had twice as much acne as those teens on a low GI diet

The GI affects insulin, which gives weight to the fact that hormones have been proven to be the main cause of acne.

Acne is mainly caused by hormones, and your hormones can be influenced by the food we put in our bodies.

I am not a doctor but I have had acne and I had read what a lot of different experts say and yes, some food can cause acne in some people, but not DIRECTLY; the food affects their hormones which causes acne.

Also, you need to support your body so it can function optimally, and certain things hinder it such as ; lack of sleep, not enough vitamins and minerals from foods, over exercising and burning yourself out.

So, if you eat too much chocolate or too much junk food instead of other foods, you may not be getting enough vitamins and minerals from the food you are MISSING; ingesting a specific food alone is LESS likely to lead to acne, but eating too much junk and not eating enough of the foods that give us vital nutrition HAS been proven to cause acne.

I have found that if I do not eat enough, or if I eat too much sugar, and if I generally do not eat a normal balanced diet then I have more acne then when I eat more clean foods and less sugar.

BY THE WAY GI JANE - it is not the cocoa in itself that causes acne, but the sugar and other nasty additives that are bad for your body in chocolate, if you have sugar free organic chocolate with no nasties added to it then that is a completely different thing.

I HAVE met a women who is intolerant or allergic to chocolate ( I forgot which one) so a small % of people can react to even pure cocoa, by breaking out or etc….

Yes, I wasn't blaming the cocoa... more the sugariness of the chocolate.  A small amount doesn't seem to cause a problem so I don't think it's an allergy.  As with a lot of things, a better diet may not directly 'cure' a particular condition but it certainly isn't going to do you any harm.... 

i find that my skin usually tells the story of my diet!

if i have been out the night before and consumed alcohol my skin will break out the next day without fail. this also happens if i eat bad foods.

i think the heightened sensitivity is due to the fact i eat clean 95% of the time but i have found that because of it my skin is really clear which it never was before i was eating clean. so i believe that your diet can have a significant impact on your skin. obviously genetics play the most important role but that isn't to say diet doesn't play a vital role too.

slightly different to the post above i find that fats (only good fats though) actually has a positive impact on my skin. if i find im low brazil nuts and salmon and things like that usually have a positive impact on my skin.

I have read the cause of breakouts is also because we touch our faces after we eat certain foods. for example after eat potato chips touching your face.  The grease from the chips get to your face.  Try to touch your face less with your hands.

my skin is vastly better since considerably reducing the amount of dairy i take in. no milk, cheese, butter etc, all resulted in much much better skin.

i notice that if i eat something high dairy that my skin will break into hard red cysts under my skin, these stick around for ages, but i still cant be sure these arent a result of hormonal fluctuations.

i'm sure chocolate fits into this category too.

Original Post by josna:

my skin is vastly better since considerably reducing the amount of dairy i take in. no milk, cheese, butter etc, all resulted in much much better skin.

i notice that if i eat something high dairy that my skin will break into hard red cysts under my skin, these stick around for ages, but i still cant be sure these arent a result of hormonal fluctuations.

i'm sure chocolate fits into this category too.

 

 I'm the same way.  I can't eat dairy, lest my face erupt in those hard cysts that stick around for weeks at a time.   There was a study done in the 1960s by a Dr. Jerome Fisher that supports this hypothesis. (Link: http://www.acnemilk.com/fisher_s_original_pap er)  It's suggested that the horomones in the milk are what triggers the acne, I believe, but I haven't read the article in a long while.

Even worse, skim/fat-free increases the incidence of breakouts (doubles it to 44% incidence of breakouts, versus 22%).  If I limit myself to a very tiny bit of full-fat dairy, I should be fine, but one sip of skim milk or fat-free frozen yogurt, and my face becomes a vertible wasteland of pain and acne.  I used to have up to a half-dozen cysts on my face at a time, and it was excruciating and embarrassing.  Then, I randomly forgot to buy skim milk and forgot that I forgot, and my skin got better.  I tried milk again a couple months later, and within a week (and less than a third of a gallon) the cysts were back.

My nutritionist didn't believe me, either, and told me I need to drink more dairy.  Blef. =/

Greasy foods kill me!  French Fries and Pizza more than anything else.  If I eat either, without fail, the next day I'll have a few big nasty zits.  I really do believe that your diet effects your skin.  It's different for everyone though.

i had my doubts about this too, how could food not influence your acne?

but by reading this forum, and thinking to my eating habits + bad acne, i'd have to say, my diet sure affects it. if i eat lots of chocolate i break out bad! But i can't think of anything else that does, except high sugar foods. i don't eat a lot of grease so i know its not from that. edit: at least for me and i think everyone reacts different too

OMG - I think I have a heightened sensitivity too!!!!! I thought about it the other day, my dad suggested that I react more to smaller things because I eat so clean all of the time, so my body is not used to handling certain bad things that other people eat more often?

I do not touch any chemicals or additives and only eat whole foods, if I eat canned beans then the only ingredient is salt and the beans and etc…..

It is SO unfair, because it seams like if I do the SLIGHTEST thing wrong my skin will not look its best!

Also, if I sleep on the same pillow case for 2 nights I can get pimples on the side of my face that is touches it!

I do not think it is actually possible for a pimp to form over night after having oily foods! Dermatologists and skin experts say that pimples take over 3 weeks to form, usually longer, BUT, perhaps the pimples that are already under the skin can be triggered to pop up after a night of oily foods or whatever it is that seams to cause acne to pop up “over night”

I also (like josna) have noticed that I get fewer outbreaks when I eat less dairy. I had really bad acne for a while and my mom suggested it could be from diary (I love cheese!) so I cut all of it out for a month and my acne was almost completely gone. I think this is more of a mild allergic reaction though...

YES dairy was definitely contributing to my acne! I cut it out (except for the occasional piece of cheese ;) mmm) and I rarely, if ever, have breakouts now. I doubt milk was the only cause of my acne, but it was definitely a contributing factor. And it's no wonder -- some of the growth hormones that are fed to cows are passed directly into the milk.

Anyways, it's worth trying cutting out dairy for a few weeks to see if it has any effect on your acne.