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Breakout When I Eat Even Tiny Amount Of Fat. Please Help.

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(@nofluff)

Posted : 08/09/2013 4:43 pm

Anyone here had a similar problem? Got an advice?

I've had acne for years, from since I was 13 to this day (mid-twenties now). Last few years I've managed to keep it under control by experimenting with my diet. I'm a very disciplined and persistent person and you wouldn't believe what kind of strict diets I tried. And this hugely helped me identify the foods that break me out.

For the last 2 years I've been on ultra low-fat diet, eating probably not more than a few grams of (any) fat/oil a day. This, along with completely cutting out dairy 3-4 years ago, really cleared up my face and back. For the last month I tried a strict diet with almost no fat: only white bread (one without vegetable oil and minimum number of ingredients/additives), boiled beans, lentils, peas. The result: my face was sooo clear.

But, every once in a while I eat something that has some fat in it and it ALWAYS breaks me out. Example

- One day I ate 2 packs of crackers, about 15 grams of fat per 100 grams. Breakout, painful pimples deep under the skin.

- Any legumes/seeds.

- Even with white bread. Few months ago I moved, and started buying groceries at a different store. I started getting 3-5 new pimples a day. I realized it was because of a different brand of white bread which had vegetable oil listed in ingredients. When I went back to the bread I was buying before, pimples were gone and I would get only 1-2 new ones per week.

- I don't eat meat, but when I do (steak, burger, every few months) it's a 100% guaranteed painful breakout.

So this isn't a matter of "good"/"bad" fats, plant based or animal based. Whenever I intake like 10 grams of fat in a day I get a few huge painful pimples deep under the skin. But most foods have some fat/oil and it's getting harder and harder to stick to my diet! I also get less serious breakouts from lots of sugar, e.g. when I drink 2 liters of any soft drink or dark beer.

Note: I'm pretty sure it isn't because my body somehow became accustomed to low fat intake, because my acne was 10x worse before when I used to eat what average person eats.

My question: Why does eating even the tiny amount of fat/oil break me out? Please help me pinpoint the cause.

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MemberMember
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(@plumpcaboose)

Posted : 08/09/2013 5:38 pm

Thanks to soluble fiber, sugars and fats enter your bloodstream at a slower rate, giving you a steady supply of energy. "When you eat foods that lack fiber, your blood sugar can spike quickly. Then it crashes, causing hunger and overeating," says Tanya Zuckerbrot, RD, author of The F-Factor Diet.

Eat less fat and eat more fiber. Research conducted In Italy involving 104 women studied the effect of reducing sex hormones through a change in diet. Dietary changes incorporated lowering total fat intake, specifically saturated fatty acids, and a decreased consumption of high-glycemic index foods

Consuming a lot of food promotes androgen release in the body. Animal foods and saturated fats tend to get the biggest response. Lower fat, higher fiber diets can increase levels of sex hormone binding proteins, thus lowering free levels of circulating androgens.

Try eating a pear an hour before you consume fat each day.

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26
(@quetzlcoatl)

Posted : 08/09/2013 5:41 pm

I've never heard of such a thing. Usually it's carbs or grain proteins that break people out.

I guess your issue with fat could have something to do with how you metabolize the fat. It could be a genetic failure of a specific enzyme, or it could be a vitamin deficiency that is not allowing metabolism of the fat beyond a certain point, which might be resulting in the excretion of the semi-metabolized fat through your skin.

Alternatively, it's maybe possible that the fat is feeding a strain of bacteria in your gut, which is then allowed to bloom and release by-products that are taken up into your blood, where your immune system reacts with them to create a sort of internal contact dermatitis.

Finally, it's possible that you're having an immune reaction to the fats themselves. It's obviously not a reaction to fatty acids in general, but it could be a reaction to a trace compound in the fats - if it's made from soybeans, a sensitivity to soy could trigger a type IV hypersensitivity reaction, because there are trace quantities of soy protein in the oil. There's a shallow chance your reaction could be in response to a particular fatty acid, but that's extremely unlikely and if you do respond to all fats the same way I would doubt this third option and look at the first two.

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MemberMember
28
(@aanabill)

Posted : 08/10/2013 12:37 am

Thanks to soluble fiber, sugars and fats enter your bloodstream at a slower rate, giving you a steady supply of energy. "When you eat foods that lack fiber, your blood sugar can spike quickly. Then it crashes, causing hunger and overeating," says Tanya Zuckerbrot, RD, author of The F-Factor Diet.

Eat less fat and eat more fiber. Research conducted In Italy involving 104 women studied the effect of reducing sex hormones through a change in diet. Dietary changes incorporated lowering total fat intake, specifically saturated fatty acids, and a decreased consumption of high-glycemic index foods

Consuming a lot of food promotes androgen release in the body. Animal foods and saturated fats tend to get the biggest response. Lower fat, higher fiber diets can increase levels of sex hormone binding proteins, thus lowering free levels of circulating androgens.

Try eating a pear an hour before you consume fat each day.

why pears?

 

yes,could it be just fat or fat and/or other things like gluten,soy etc?

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MemberMember
1
(@plumpcaboose)

Posted : 08/10/2013 8:35 am

why pears?

yes,could it be just fat or fat and/or other things like gluten,soy etc?

Because pears are the lowest glycemic index fruit that have the most fiber. You could also eat strawberries or apples.

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MemberMember
10
(@o-havoc-o)

Posted : 08/13/2013 10:58 am

Anyone here had a similar problem? Got an advice?

I've had acne for years, from since I was 13 to this day (mid-twenties now). Last few years I've managed to keep it under control by experimenting with my diet. I'm a very disciplined and persistent person and you wouldn't believe what kind of strict diets I tried. And this hugely helped me identify the foods that break me out.

For the last 2 years I've been on ultra low-fat diet, eating probably not more than a few grams of (any) fat/oil a day. This, along with completely cutting out dairy 3-4 years ago, really cleared up my face and back. For the last month I tried a strict diet with almost no fat: only white bread (one without vegetable oil and minimum number of ingredients/additives), boiled beans, lentils, peas. The result: my face was sooo clear.

But, every once in a while I eat something that has some fat in it and it ALWAYS breaks me out. Example

- One day I ate 2 packs of crackers, about 15 grams of fat per 100 grams. Breakout, painful pimples deep under the skin.

- Any legumes/seeds.

- Even with white bread. Few months ago I moved, and started buying groceries at a different store. I started getting 3-5 new pimples a day. I realized it was because of a different brand of white bread which had vegetable oil listed in ingredients. When I went back to the bread I was buying before, pimples were gone and I would get only 1-2 new ones per week.

- I don't eat meat, but when I do (steak, burger, every few months) it's a 100% guaranteed painful breakout.

So this isn't a matter of "good"/"bad" fats, plant based or animal based. Whenever I intake like 10 grams of fat in a day I get a few huge painful pimples deep under the skin. But most foods have some fat/oil and it's getting harder and harder to stick to my diet! I also get less serious breakouts from lots of sugar, e.g. when I drink 2 liters of any soft drink or dark beer.

Note: I'm pretty sure it isn't because my body somehow became accustomed to low fat intake, because my acne was 10x worse before when I used to eat what average person eats.

My question: Why does eating even the tiny amount of fat/oil break me out? Please help me pinpoint the cause.

It could because you have gone so low fat for so long that has caused this sensitivty.

There may have been some hormonal changes as a cause of this.

Fact is, you need fats to be healthy. It could be the lack of fat that has caused this condition. Just a possibility

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MemberMember
0
(@subtleairmail)

Posted : 02/03/2014 12:29 pm

Just wondering if you have had any success solving your issue with fat and acne? I have the exact same problem:(

Thank you

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MemberMember
410
(@alternativista)

Posted : 02/03/2014 2:23 pm

 

Just have to comment that the OP didn't name any good fats in the examples and did name a lot of junk like white bread & crackers. Vegetable oil is not a good fat. With the animal fat, it depends on what the animals ate whether its good or not and all that talk of white bread makes me doubt they were from pastured animals.

that said, there are things that affect your fat metabolism that you can address.

Good things for fat metabolism:

Nutrients that aid fat metabolism:

-Vitamin A -

-B Vitamins, Niacin (B3), B2 (cofactor with vitamin A), B6, B5 (pantothenic acid>pantethine>Co-Enzyme A(CoA)).

-Zinc

-Green tea

-Apple cider vinegar/acetic acid

-Mono-unsaturated fats - olive oil, avocados, etc.

-Lipase digestive enzymes.

 

-Vitamin D and calcium - search and lots of studies come up, but I haven't had the time to really read and pick something good to link to.

 

-Bile - http://www.acne.org/...54#entry2655754 . -Taurine is a major component of bile. The body makes this from the other sulfur amino acids cysteine and methionine and other sulfur compounds (so eat your greens, cabbage, onions), but some people may not be making enough and supplementation may help.

 

Regular, daily low to moderate level physical activity. - stimulates fat metabolizing and burning enzymes. Mimic the kind of activity we were meant to perform as much as possible: Many hours of walking around foraging for food, traveling or doing chores with short bursts of intense physical activity for capturing prey or escaping predators. Walk, cycle, dance, work combined with stairs and/or hills, weights, etc. See the Exercise section for the lists of benefits from these two types of physical activity.

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(@nofluff)

Posted : 05/08/2014 9:34 am

 

First, thanks to everyone who took time to read and reply. So much time has passed. I finally have some updates.

 

In the meantime I did a blood test and most of the levels are perfect. Cholesterol, triglycerides are all perfect. Blood levels that are off: uric acid very low, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) very high, sodium high. Haven't yet tested for hormones, calcium.

 

This lead to another test. And it turned out I have "severe deficiency" of vitamin D, it's so low it's almost zero. Been put on strong oil-based vitamin D supplementation for a while, so my next blood test should show the new level and also I'll be tested for some hormones. This makes sense because I'm as pale as one can be, always been like that. No wonder, I'm an indoor type, never go to beach, pool, sun tanning, wear long sleeves even in summer :), etc.

 

I've never heard of such a thing. Usually it's carbs or grain proteins that break people out.

I guess your issue with fat could have something to do with how you metabolize the fat. It could be a genetic failure of a specific enzyme, or it could be a vitamin deficiency that is not allowing metabolism of the fat beyond a certain point, which might be resulting in the excretion of the semi-metabolized fat through your skin.

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MemberMember
0
(@nofluff)

Posted : 05/08/2014 11:32 am

yes,could it be just fat or fat and/or other things like gluten,soy etc?

I used to eat roasted soy and never had allergic reactions or strong breakouts, just usual acne. Can't say anything particular about gluten. In general I never had allergic reactions to anything, don't know about intolerances though.

It could because you have gone so low fat for so long that has caused this sensitivty.

There may have been some hormonal changes as a cause of this.

Fact is, you need fats to be healthy. It could be the lack of fat that has caused this condition. Just a possibility

I had acne constantly since 13 until recently (mid-twenties), not a single month of relief. All the while I ate everything moderately and lately did experiments with cutting out particular food to find triggers. Roughly 10 months ago as an experiment I tried to cut out all fats/oils and within one month my face and back were clear. For the first time since 13. So acne didn't start or worsen when I had cut out fat, but exactly the opposite. Note: my time estimates in the first post were inaccurate.

I agree, you need fats. That's why I'm worried, this diet could be bad for my body in the long term. It started just as an experiment, didn't expect such a drastic positive result. I can't wait to be able to eat fats (moderately) but without it ruining my skin within few days.

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410
(@alternativista)

Posted : 05/08/2014 6:22 pm

 

 

 

Nutrients that aid fat metabolism:

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16
(@dscully)

Posted : 05/09/2014 11:20 am

Yeeeeesh! That's a lot of bread. Are you eating healthy fats? Vegetable oil is poison. If you were eating avocados and coconut oil and pastured butter, I would be dumfounded, but as it stands, I'd say it's processed oils and CAFO animal fats that are probably the problem and not all fats in general. Also be sure you are not nutrient deficient as @alternativista mentioned, as this can cause malabsorbsion of food and poor digestion. Try taking a probiotic and fiber supplement, as well. Your gut flora might be out of whack. I really like psyllium husk capsules for fiber. They are very helpful for clearing out your gut... which is gross, but necessary for health.

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(@bentley14)

Posted : 01/08/2019 4:13 pm

@NoFluffany updates? Did the vitamin D help?

I have the exact same issue with fats, just as you described.

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(@bettycrocka)

Posted : 01/09/2019 8:49 am

@NoFluff @Bentley14 I too seem to have the same issue, whether its healthy fats or not. For example yesterday I ate half an avocado and a handful of nutsand today my temples and forehead are broken out. This has been happening for about a year and a half and I have not found a solution from doctors or anywhere else. If you guys have found any success in the ability to eat healthy fats without breaking out please share :). I am also curious if the vitamin D helped!

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13
(@anna999)

Posted : 01/11/2019 2:23 am

If you have trouble with fats it may be liver congestion? It is responsible for breaking down fats and I know liver problems can cause acne. Try Milk Thistle or other liver support supplements. Also, vitamin D really helped with my acne so I hope you get good results too :)

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