Can food cause acne?

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Can food cause acne? I get asked this question all the time.

Food is very important in most cases of acne. Anyone who has acne should think about various foods in relation to how much fat they contain. Sweet cream, whipped cream, butter, the fat part of meats and fried foods (because they are fried in fats)-including potato chips and French fried potatoes-increase the fat content of the blood stream.

This adds to the fat content of the skin and may make acne worse. Olives and nuts contain oils and should therefore be avoided. Peanut butter fits into this category, as do the usual margarines which are made with various hydrogenated fats.

Though sugar does not in itself make acne worse, chocolate is often the worst offender. Any form of chocolate, cookies, cake, syrup for milk and sundaes, cocoa, or ice cream often brings on an outbreak of quite a few blackheads and pimples. Some teen-agers can control acne simply by avoiding chocolate.

There are teenagers who are so sensitive to fats that even the fat content of whole milk aggravates their acne if taken in large amounts. For them a top limit of three or four glasses of milk a day might be a good idea.

Of course if the teenager will substitute skim milk or buttermilk for the whole milk, he will get the nutritional benefits of milk without the disadvantages of the fat. Adolescents who think they hate the taste of skim milk should try mixing skim and whole milk half-and-half. Usually such a mixture is hard to differentiate from whole milk, yet it cuts in half the total fat intake for someone who is better off without too much fat in his diet.

A good diet for those who want to improve their complexion consists mostly of lean meats, fruits, vegetables, cottage cheese, skim milk, and plenty of water and fruit juices. Vitamins are advisable, in quantity sufficient to cover regular requirements. Some believe that very high doses of vitamin A are beneficial for this condition.

This treatment should only be carried out under a physician’s orders and with his continuing observation. Cases of nervousness, bone disorders, and various forms of skin rash have been reported from overuse of vitamin A over long periods of time.

An increase of iodine in the body fluids can make acne worse. This is true of bromine also. Someone with much trouble from acne should use regular salt, not the iodized variety, and care should be taken to avoid over consumption of cough syrups containing iodides or bromides. Since sea foods are high in iodine content, their use should be limited.

Possibly the one most important aspect of skin care in adolescence is the attitude of the individual. One young lady with many pimples on her face will say, “I’m not worried about my skin. I know it’ll clear up when I’m older. Another with beautifully clear skin will ask for a rebriefing on all aspects of acne, which she already knows by heart, because she wants to know “what to do in case I get any of those awful-looking things.” A devil-may-care, leather-jack-eted, sixteen-year-old tough guy confesses to me that he would do anything to rid his face of the few pimples he has. The teenager’s battle for independence often colors his reaction to parental suggestions about skin care. Acne, like obesity, will get no more attention than the teen-ager himself wants to give to the problem. Well-meaning parents sometimes get trapped into feeling responsible for any blemish on their children’s skin.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 8:56 pm and is filed under Acne Causes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.