Can A Good Diet Help Combat Acne?

Can A Good Diet Help Combat Acne?

How your diet impacts the appearance of your skin and acne is a hotly debated issue. Misinformation can make it difficult to decide what’s myth and what’s fact.

The Myth: Chocolate vs. Acne

Some studies done in the 1960s and 1970s claimed not to show a link between chocolate consumption and acne. However these studies themselves weren’t very reliable. The studies essentially involved giving one set of people who had acne a chocolate bar, and another set of people something which looked like a chocolate bar. The results were noted after around a month and no difference between the groups were found. However the non chocolate bar still contained fats and sugars, so the study doesn’t actually say much about the impact of a good diet on acne or bad skin.

Unfortunately people used this study to make the claim that chocolate and a poor diet doesn’t cause acne or make it worse. Today if you ask someone if acne can be caused by a poor diet they’d probably say “no”. But there currently isn’t any evidence to say that this is true.

Can A Poor Diet Worsen Acne?

There is actually theoretical evidence to suggest that a poor diet can make acne worse. A higher sugar diet can increase the amount of blood sugar in the body. This can go on to cause the body to produce too much insulin which then results in more testosterone. These extra hormones are responsible acne, so a poor diet can indirectly cause acne, or make an outbreak worse.

Can A Good Diet Help Acne?

Giving your body all of the right foods will help too. This makes sense. You’re giving your body the things it needs to properly repair your skin, and fight the infection. It’s all about putting your body in a state where it can best recover.

Some have established reasoning behind “a bad diet doesn’t make acne worse.” But is the reverse true? Can a good diet help acne? There is some proof to suggest that higher levels of antioxidant intake are correlated with clearer skin. Inflammation is a potential cause of acne as it creates conditions in which the bacteria can easily multiply. Antioxidants can help reduce this inflammation. We all know that drinking lots of waterand staying well hydrated is part of a balanced diet. If our skin becomes dehydrated and our dead skin cells dry out than it is more likely to  block our pores. Blocked pores are another big cause of acne.

Overall it’s still hard to say one way or another if a poor diet can definitely cause acne. But eating a balanced diet should be something you’re doing anyway. It obviously won’t make your acne worse and could make it better. So surely it’s worth doing! Remember that getting rid of bad skin & acne isn’t just about one miracle treatment, but your whole skin-care routine.