I am 25 years old and I have been trying to figure out my acne / breakouts cause for almost 2 years now, I give up because I cannot find the exact cause, I would really appreciate any ideas, connections, tips...
Here are some details that may help you help me:
- My symptoms appears within 24hours or less after I eat certain foods, there are 2 main symptoms that bother me, one is red signs that appear on the skin and they form into whiteheads slowly and eventually come to the surface within a couple of days, and two.. is the basic small whiteheads that appear and heal quickly.
- --
- Dairy seems to cause these reactions to me, especially pizza and cheese like parmegan / camambert, but other dairy as well, even cheese cream and cottage, BUT! I can drink homemade fermented milk kefir without any symptom, however if I consume 2 cups instead of 1, I breakout..
- --
- Spinach, Boiled cabbage, Roasted cauliflower sometimes cause symptoms, other times they dont.
- --
- Sometimes I get symptoms after pasta or rice, whole or refined, other times I dont (lately I had symptoms after eating 1 bowl of whole pasta in tomato sauce)
- --
- Sometimes I get symptoms after eating chicken breast or other meat, other times I dont...
- --
- If I eat salads/soups all day and everyday I get 100% beutifull skin/face.
- --
- Eggs cooked / fried seems to cause symptoms too.
- --
- Sometimes I get symptoms after bread but I can eat home-made Spelt breads (that are made with spelt flour, eggs, salt, onions), pretty much all day without any symptom.
As you can see this is totally random and the symptoms sometimes appear and sometimes they dont, I suspect some connection to iodine and/or thyroid function, but after reading an endless amount of articles and info on the internet I cannot figure out what or how it all affects me, and how do I approach it, any ideas, Please help! 
You may have some rosacea in addition to your acne which means that you will have food triggers beyond the normal acne food triggers (dairy, sugars, wheat, etc.). Google "rosacea diet" or "rosacea triggers". Rosacea can manifest as a bit of redness along with whiteheads, etc...it is not just blushing. You may have a food sensitivity so it will help to get some allergy testing to narrow it down. In addition you could have a fructose sensitivity which translates into being sensitive to anything with fructose or sweet or full of sugar. Interestingly foods like tomato sauce are full of sugars that if eaten eneough can cause an acne reaction in sensitive individuals.
What will help you is to keep a detailed journal of what you eat and reactions. You may find that your sensitivities depend on amount of offending item eaten. For instance, I can eat a burrito once a week but if I eat flour products everyday I break out. If I eat bread I break out --- most likely due to the yeast used. But I can eat a non-yeast flour product like a burrito shell or some pasta once a week with no problem....just not everyday. I can eat berries but not citrus fruits.
It takes awhile to figure out what are your triggers and at what threshold you get a reaction. It is well worth it to spend time documenting this...because after awhile you can figure out a diet that will work just for you.
For me oils are also a major problem. I can tolerate a teensy tiny amount of EVOO in cooking but no other kinds of oils, and not anything from fast food places or restaurants or I break out. I have been working on my diet for years...fine tuning it and just figured out the piece about oils...took a very long time!