Whether you are an adult or teenager acne is absolutely awful. Acne is commonly blamed upon hormones, but what you are digesting (eating) may be the biggest culprit, especially in adult acne. This article will review 5 foods that may be causing your acne.
- Refined Carbohydrates aka Processed Carbohydrates
Ever heard of empty calorie foods? Well this is the same type of food and these foods may be causing your acne.
How? Refined carbohydrates spikes glucose levels —> Causes insulin levels to spike—> Creating a sebum buildup in your pores —> Leading to more clogged pores.
Here are some example of food that contains refined carbohydrates:
- Bread, crackers, anything with white flour (flour is processed from wheat germ to become white flour)
- Pasta or other noodles (rice noodles/low mien) made with white flour
- White rice
- Sweeteners like cane sugar, maple syrup, honey or agave (soda and other sweet beverages and snacks contain this)
Food from the above categories may be causing your acne by causing overactive glands.
2. Lactose
Some doctors agree that these food items may cause acne while some do not see the correlation. Let’s put it like this, cows have hormones and when you drink dairy items such as milk, you are drinking their hormones. The hormones can affect your own hormones or testosterone and can cause acne inflammation. Also protein powder, which is made from lactose, has been directly linked to acne…which leads to the next point.
3. Whey Protein Powder
Between the hormones and amino acids, whey powder can cause acne. Amino acids are found in whey protein and are protein building blocks. They are a great supplement for body builders to take, because it allows them to build more protein for muscle gain, but it might be causing your acne.
If you noticed an influx of acne after you started taking whey protein powder, stop taking it to see if this food is causing your acne.
- Omega-6
These fats are found mostly in corn oil and vegetable oils. These are the common food items that contain Omega-6 :
- Processed food
- Fried food
- Potato or corn chip
- Cured meat
- Nuts with oil and salt
These foods may me causing your acne by clogging your pores.
- Food allergies
If you have food allergies like Gluten, these food items could be the cause of your acne inflammation. Gluten circumferences more than white flour and can be find in many food items. Luckily, for people with gluten sensitivity or have celiac disease there are so many gluten free options in today’s world versus a couple of years ago.
How to find out if food is causing your acne:
If you have acne, the best thing to do is to start eliminating items from your diet.
Refined carbohydrates should hardly be consumed anyhow, since there is no nutritional value to those items. Acne should be the least of your worries if you are consuming those items.
Replace lactose with alternative milk and try to cut some of the cheese to nearly all of the cheese out to see if this is the culprit.
If you are consuming whey protein powder as a supplement, try to eat more food items that have protein and eliminate the whey. There are plenty of athletes that are clean eaters that are building muscles without taking protein powder.
Replace Omega-6 food items with Omega- 3 food items because once again, this food category does not have any nutritional value and can cause more harm to your body than acne.
