Improving your Acne through Diet
You are what you eat, certainly as far as acne prone skin is concerned. There is a link between certain foods and the prevalence of acne outbreaks. However, it is not as simple as:
greasy food = greasy skin = acne
No, it is more complicated than that and is more to do with the effect that food has upon the production of hormones in the body. It is these hormones which increase the sebum production in your skin so that the pores become overloaded and can shed excess oil and dead skin. This means that bacteria breed in the pores of your skin, spreading pimples and worse. So the link between food and acne is less direct than some people might think, but it is still there.
To help to control your acne, you do need to cut down on unhealthy saturated oils and fats, but you also need to go easy on the sugars. That way, your insulin levels won’t peak and dip dramatically like they do for many people. These differing insulin levels trigger the production of male hormones which in turn trigger the production of sebum in the skin – and it is this excess sebum which is a real problem in causing acne.
So a good diet for acne sufferers is a good diet for us all – a balanced diet rich in vitamins and minerals and especially antioxidants. You need to cut down on red meat and processed food as they contain the hormones that are most likely to inflame your acne and make breakouts of pimples more likely.
It is true that for some people, acne is caused by an allergy and this may be to a certain food. If you suspect that your acne is made worse by certain foods then try eliminating that food completely from your diet for a couple of weeks to see if your skin condition improves. Then introduce the suspected culprit back into your diet to see if your acne worsens once more. If it does, it looks like that food is an acne trigger for you and you should avoid it in the future.
If you don’t have a particular allergy, focus on a healthy diet centered on vegetables and fruit. Cut down on meat, pastas and breads. You need to focus on foods with a low glycemic index rating, which will avoid the insulin spikes that trigger acne-inducing hormones. Even within fruit and vegetables, some foods will be higher than others on the glycemic index but there are plenty of books and internet sites which will help you find low glycemic index foods around which to base your diet.
Aside from that, you need plenty of vitamin rich foods and lots of still mineral water to flush out acne-causing toxins and excess hormones from your body. This kind of a diet should help you to keep control of any acne outbreaks, lessening their severity and occurrence through controlling the hormones in your body. That is the real link between food and acne.
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