For just a bit over a week I decided to stop eating pasta. My skin had been at its worst in a long time and I couldn't figure out why. At first I thought it might be masturbation again, and while it was always a trigger I was starting to think it might be the fact that I had been eating too much pasta again; every dinner.

I know a lot of people who work out avoid carbs in the evening. While I'm still consuming bread and such, the pastas were the food with the higher amount of carbs.

Since I cut them out, all of my acne has been clearing, very dramatically.

I can't be 100% certain that this is the reason, but I am 27 and have had acne since I was 12 or 13. Only for a bit under one year in my life since then was I completely clear, and I never really figured out what I was doing during that time (but I do know I wasn't eating pasta for dinner during that time, or at least almost never, but I was also getting tanned and was using proactiv for some time, getting more sleep, etc., things that I am not doing now).

I'll keep you guys updated. Not everyone is the same of course, but for me it seems that completely cutting out pasta is helping a lot.

Awesome! Congrats. If you feel motivated enough then maybe you should try giving up the bread and similar foods too for a while and see what happens? Like if you clear up even faster. Perhaps it won't be necessary though, sounds like you found your regimen!

This post has been edited by dirtbomb: Mar 28 2010, 05:06 AM

Just to let you guys know that this is really working. I can eat nutella, go to bed late, etc., I am clearing up completely by keeping pastas out of my diet. This is quite amazing, I'm feeling really, finally!

oh damn if its really the pasta then i could have saved much money >.< :'(

my family eats lots of pasta. my dad doesnt live with us because hes not longer married to my mom but she has to work so we usually dont have many time to prepare food. we mostly ead wholemeal bread (self-baked), potatoes or pasta (i love pasta). but our pasta is also wholemeal. its not the typical white pasta but a bit darker (yeah, wholemeal lol). do you think this wholemeal pasta could still be a cause of my acne?

please let me know

Hi there,
I was just wondering - what do you have on the pasta - cheese, tuna, butter - could it be the topping as well, that is accounting for the improvements?
Best wishes,
Thomas

*Moderator edit, URL removed - read the board rules. *

Just my 2 cents here...

As we all know pasta equals carbs and carbs equals sugar (since most carbs are broken down into glucose in our bodies). One of the main ways I have been overcoming my acne by cutting sugar (I slipped up a week ago and am still in the process of recovering). I think the sugar/insulin argument is very valid, at least for me.

So...maybe that's something to really look into and maybe if you cut more sugars you'll see even better results!

Bread, potatoes and pastas are pretty high on the glycemic index and are all very likely triggers of your acne.

Anytime I'd eat any bread, potatoes or pasta, I'd break out by the next morning. Won't touch the stuff, now.

If you want potatoes, at least try sweet potatoes.

by ant chance were you eating tomato sauce on the pasta??

based on my own experiances, this was the actual culprit for me, and not the pasta.

I get really weird stomach problems from pasta with tomato sauce. I'm not sure if it's the pasta or the tomato sauce because the same type of pasta is never offered with any different sauce nor is the sauce put on anything else. This is in my university cafeteria by the way.

Also, do you guys think brown rice causes as much of a problem as pasta?

just a tip though, grains are essential to the human diet. perhaps more accurately, they are so good for you, the fiber in them is magic, read up before decide that grains are no good. they keep you as regular as possible, thats important for getting rid of waste.

This post has been edited by AutonomousOne1980: Mar 29 2010, 09:51 PM

If that were the case we wouldn't exist

Sorry but you have no idea what you're talking about here.

This post has been edited by dirtbomb: Mar 30 2010, 01:18 AM

evasion: Brown rice has a lower glycemic load which in theory means less acne. Grains are still grains though, and I don't trust brown rice -- in fact, last time I had some I threw up after dinner because my body couldn't take it after more than 2 months on the paleo diet.

Wow...this is amazing! I was JUST about to post something like this, but thought I was crazy.

So my story lol...

I've always been on the mild side of acne for the past 5 years (usually 3-5 zits per month), but it would be constant (every month). I never understood triggers, or HOW people could pin a specific food as the major cause for acne or breakouts...until late dec 09.

My skin was freaking clear and my scars were almost faded in dec. But after my rents went on a trip, I was home alone, so I had to cook for myself. I made baked pasta in a baking dish, and had it for the everyday for a week (since no1 else was home to eat it)....I BROKE OUT LIKE CRAZY. All over my forehead and nose area. I had like 15-20 pimples...it was absolutely horrible. But i didn't correlate it with pasta yet.

Fastfoward to early Feb. I'm starting to clear up really well (after 1 1/2 painful months). My mom makes spaghetti, and I end up eating it for dinner for 3 days. Freaking hell...I broke out like crazy AGAIN, but this time all over my cheek area with some on my forehead. It was disgusting, it looked like i had a bacteria infection on my cheeks because all the pimples were so close together.

At this time, I was suspecting pasta as the culprit, but didn't believe it just yet, because I LOVE PASTA.

Fast foward to early march, my skin is still in terrible shape but healing. I decided to do pasta one more time, and make sure it was a major trigger of breakouts for me. I ate pasta at a friend's house, and what do you know. A few days after, I break out again. This time it was smaller (i'm assuming it's because I only ate a bowl or 2, not over a period of days), but still annoying. I probably got like 5 new pimples from it.

Since then, I've stopped all pasta eating. And guess what, I have no active pimple on my face at the moment. Scars are healing well and I'm happy. I do get pimples still, like how I did before all this happened in dec (3-5 per month but never at the same time. They die quick). So I've started taking vitamins/supplements to see if I can stop it completely.

But yea, remember everyone is different. I just happen to have the same case as the OP. I haven't completely given up on pasta yet. When i get completely clear of scars and pimples back to normal or stop altogether, I'm gona give it ONE more try, so I have no doubts.

Hope this story helped

That's a great story TofuEater, thanks a lot for sharing. Made me even more convinced grains suck so bad.

Do you normally eat a lot of processed grains? Bread, white rice, etc.? Do you consume a lot of sugar on a daily basis (including fruit)? If not, the pasta might be raising your blood sugar.

Was there anything else that was in the pasta (tomato sauce, cheese) that you do not normally have in the quantity? It might be possible that you are breaking out from the cheese or tomato sauce you have been eating with the pasta.

Pasta causing acne usually points to two things: gluten intolerance or insulin sensitivity. Unless you were eating the same pasta each time that was contaminated with something.

I do eat rice quite often for dinner (I'm chinese). I don't eat a lot of bread or cereal. Cereal I will if it's in the house, but lately it hasn't been. I don't eat a lot of sugary products. NATURALLY (i'm not a freak), i don't eat or like candy, soda, ice cream, chocolate . But I do have a thing for pastries. Brownies, and cookies mhmmmm....

The first pasta I made was baked ziti with 3 cheeses (mozz,pamesean, and one more feta or goat, i forgot). The second time was the typical spaghetti with meatballs, and grated paramsean (sp?) cheese on top. The third time my friend made a lasagna type pasta. All were tomato sauce.

The thing is I don't know if it's the PASTA NOODLES or the SAUCE...I'm jsut staying away from it until I completely clear. Then I will try it ONE MORE TIME because I have to make absolute sure before I cut out my favourite dish.

Also, I didn't care for triggers in the past, so all the other times I ate pasta, I don't remember or know if I had an unusual breakout. I just been keeping an eye the last 3 times I ate it.

Everyone here seems to be doubting the pasta is what's causing you and the OP to break out. I don't see why. Sure, the cheese could definitely be a major problem too, but that doesn't make the pasta less suspect.

It's okay. I've had three separate times that I ate pasta and a week in, started breaking out. Three times where I broke out with dozens of zits on my face. The last two times, I kept an eye on whether I was doing anything differently, but wasn't. Aside from eating pasta, my lifestyle doesn't change. And pasta eating is a rare occurrence for me, because my parents don't like eating "western food" ...so It's easy for me pick it out as a trigger for ME if i break out.

Three times isn't a coincidence, nor is it a coincidence that I stopped eating pasta and I've cleared up immensely. I continue to do everything else I did prior to this whole mess. Like I said, when I fully get clear of my scars, I will try for a 4th time to be certain so I will see.

I also want to reiterate it's not the same for everyone and THEIR acne. But I 98% sure it is for me.

Awesome, thanks again for sharing this. Are you 100% clear when you're not eating pasta, or do you always have some mild acne?