I always see people putting diet and acne together, but I find it really hard to believe there is a direct correlation.
I am obviously very careful with what I eat, and try to keep the amount of sugar and dairy I take in next to none, because generally they're bad and fatty for you.
A few years back I was eating super healthy, five a day, a lot of water, no sugar or dairy, lots of green tea, and all that but I still had acne, obviously I felt better natrually, but it made me realise it doesn't really make a difference to your skin. Of course being healthy is ideal and probably will help your digestion, which is important to work right when connected to diet right?
Anyway, what are your thoughts on it, it's a very difficult topic if I am honest, and even know I don't believe there is a direct correlation, I still stay away completely from dairy, chocolate and all that, weird aye.
You could also be sensitive to something that's typically considered healthy...it really depends on the person, but an acne-prone person needs to be careful with overindulging anyway. Also, how can there not be a correlation between diet and skin? If we don't eat, we die! If we eat crap all the time, we get high cholesterol. Food is there for sustenance, we shouldn't abuse it. Dermatologists will usually say there is no direct connection, but that's because they have no experience in regulating acne through nutritional modifications...all they know is how to control acne using drugs and harsh topicals. I'm generalizing of course, there are some dermatologists who advice patients to limit their dairy and sugar intake, and so on.
Well, I think doctors say that because yes there isn't much evidence to show whether there is a direct correlation or not. I mean it's hard to say right, because like I said, some people can go eating the most grotesque foods, have all these health issues with cholesterol and what not, but don't have acne.
I think it's obviously mainly hormonal, and your diet is important when you are going through that hormonal stage, because too much sugar can cause your hormones to go bonkers, as well as the face that dairy supposedly contains hormones too.
Consideration of a role for diet in contributing to acne arose in the 1930s, and chocolate, sugar, and iodine were among the dietary factors implicated. As a result of a series of studies in the late 1960s that failed to identify a dietary connection, the concept fell out of fashion. However, the debate has been rekindled in response to a variety of data emerging over the last decade.
A retrospective recall-based study in adult nurses and a prospective self-assessment study in teenage girls both suggested an association between acne and intake of milk and other dairy products. A subsequent prospective study in teenage boys suggested an association with skim milk, although the previous 2 studies did not identify a difference based on milk fat content.
The effects on acne of glycemic load in the diet also have been subjected to examination. An anthropologic study comparing acne rates in a hunter-gatherer population in Papua New Guinea versus those in the developed world suggested that dietary glycemic load may contribute to the observed differences in acne incidence. A number of prospective trials subsequently have been performed, notably including a randomized prospective controlled trial of a low glycemic diet versus a high glycemic diet in teenage boys. By the end of the 12-week study, the low glycemic diet was shown to provide superior reduction in the number of total acne lesions (23.5 3.9 vs 12.0 3.5, P = .03), as well as reductions in inflammatory lesion count and other parameters including weight and BMI.
Other dietary constituents that are the subject of renewed interest include zinc and antioxidants; the role of chocolate is being reinvestigated in a blinded placebo-controlled clinical trial (clinicaltrials.gov). Based on the currently available data, it is difficult to point with certainty to any dietary manipulation that should be recommended to pediatric patients suffering from acne; however, consideration may be given in individual cases to institution of a low glycemic diet. Patient and parent education to dispel acne myths is an important treatment consideration.
How do I put this.
There's such a term as premodernist though. This is before the scientific method and the enlightenment, a way of thinking that goes like this: if you can explain a phenomenon and it look like a plausible explanation, then it will be accepted as truth. That's basically how you can excuse people of witchcraft back in the 17th century.
So when someone says "my friend eats whatever she wants and doesn't have acne, so it must be a myth," or, "when I have dairy I break out, dairy causes acne" ... that's dating our society back 400 years.
That said, if you start noticing a correlation between your food intake and pattern of skin breakouts, that's a valid observation and you can run with it--especially considering many people have observed correlations between food intake and their breakouts. The sheer amount of these observational correlations is compelling. Compelling enough for me to say to perform some n=1 on yourself and narrow down what you can hypothesize to give you acne. But it will remain a hypothesis until a scientist gets funding to look into it.
But for now, just leave the diet/acne connection to the scientists, let's not make sweeping conclusions here.
Hope I didn't sound up my own ass just then, but that's really how I feel. This debate is far too played out.
I do understand what you're saying and I agree somewhat.
But I think it's almost impossible to know if something you eat is breaking you out, generally you eat 3 meals a day including snacks, depending what you eat, you wouldn't beable to pin point what it was, or if it was the food at all, or if it was just a hormonal breakout, generally through the teenage years breakouts are unpredictable.
I find the products you use on your face may take more a toll, because if you think about it, people who get acne go mad trying to find products to make it better, but never find the right thing straight away. Like me for example I've tried so many products it's unreal, many of which have messed my skin up so bad that if I had just left i I doubt to this day it would have been bad still
I do not agree with this correlation, I think some people might have alergies or intolerances to certain foods, but it does not mean that this exists for everybody, otherwise all the overweighted people in the world would suffer from severe acne...
Some people simply aren't acnegenic, i.e. they are not vulnerable to getting acne, because they don't have the genetically predetermined dermal physiology and hormonal activity that leads to acne. Therefore, no matter what they eat, they will not get acne (even if they are overweight/obese). This is because they do not overproduce sebum or because their keratinization is normalised (or both).
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/topic/53529-do-you-have-clear-relatives-friends-etc/?p=612619
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/topic/52997-antidote-in-sight/?p=606058
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/topic/51323-various-cultures-diets-vs-acne/?p=592929
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/topic/51372-bums-and-acne/?p=595276