Question:
I have acne and I always worry that what I’m eating
is causing it to get worse. Is there a connection between what
I eat and my acne?
Answer:
There’s so much in the news these days about our diets and
the effects that foods we eat have on us. So, it’s not surprising
that you’d wonder if your food is causing your acne.
Back
when I was a kid, we were told by the ‘authorities’
that acne was caused by some of the foods in our diet. French
fries were on the hit list. So was chocolate. But, as studies
have been done over the years, no connection has ever been proven
between those foods and acne.
There’s
one intriguing study that has connected a food category with acne.
That food group includes most of the forms of dairy products.
The study looked back at high school diets of 47,355 nurses and
compared foods eaten and their experience with acne. They found
a ‘positive association’ between milk intake (as well
as other dairy products) and the incidence of acne.
The
authors of the study suggested that it may not have been dairy,
per se, that was responsible for the acne. Instead, they theorized,
it may have been the hormones present in the milk that contributed
to the acne. After all, acne is definitely connected to hormones,
so it wouldn’t be surprising if the hormones present in
the milk could contribute to the acne.
The
answer is not clearly known at this point, but it is at least
possible that you’d find that avoiding all forms of dairy
products for a week or 10 days would make a difference.
There
is one other potential connection to foods that you should be
aware of. There is a very interesting study in which the authors
report on surveys of primitive cultures looking for acne. The
two groups reported are ones that live strictly on foods that
have never been processed – basically just fruits, nuts
and meats. In large groups looked at from these cultures, they
could find no acne, even among teenagers. That’s in contrast
to all ‘advanced’ cultures (which, of course, eat
processed foods), where 80-90% of teenagers will experience acne.
It
has been hypothesized that there may be a connection to our high-carbohydrate
diets and the impact on how our insulin handles that load. This
intriguing potential connection to acne has yet to be tested directly,
so it remains an intriguing possibility. If you live on soda pop
and hi-carb junk food, you shouldn’t be. Who knows, maybe
kicking the habit could even help your acne!
If
you have a question that you haven't been able to find an answer
to on this site, please send your question about acne to Dr.
Wilkinson.
