5 Foods To Avoid If You’re Acne Prone

As Lorde and everyone else living with chronic acne knows, sometimes you can slap whatever products you want on your face and it will not help.

When this happens, it’s worth taking a look inside – or down, at what’s on your plate.

While a poor diet can’t give you acne – that’s entirely genetic, it can trigger, spur on and worsen problem skin. Here, we’ve listed the worst offenders below.

A low glycemic (GI) diet – one low in sugars both natural and processed – is best for reducing inflammation and hormonal fluctuations. Saying sayonara to pastries and gelato is good (said no one ever, but true in this case). And if your acne is raging, weaning yourself off natural sweeteners like honey and fruit juices can also help regulate sugar levels.

A recent study by Journal of The American Academy of Dermatology found a link between consumption of skim milk and acne in teens. They compared full-fat milk to skim and surprisingly, the results showed that skim actually had a greater negative outcome on teen problem skin. Almond/coconut milk it is then…

The problem with the best food group to ever exist is that the cow’s milk is often taken from pregnant cows and contains a high level of female hormone, progesterone. This can throw off your hormonal balance, causing acne. Moreover, a 2014 survey by the Australian Bureau of Statistics found that a larger number of people were lactose-intolerant (4.5%) than gluten (2.5%) and shellfish (2.0%) intolerant. This is to say that you could be dairy intolerant without even knowing it and eating foods you’re intolerant to heightens inflammation, which can manifest itself in problem skin. And this is why we can’t have nice things.

For the same reason as dairy, you may want to consider weaning yourself off excessive amounts of chicken (and meats in general if your skin is really suffering). Chicken and meats that contain added hormones, along with those naturally occurring, are bad news for hormonal cystic acne sufferers when consumed excessively.

So, here we are. Your last sweet treat. Your morning latte or long black might give you a “rush” of adrenaline, but it’s also pumping up your cortisol levels (stress hormones). This sets off a chain reaction that makes your skin’s oil glands amp up so you look extra shiny, which puts you at risk of congestion. If you’re drinking enough cups of coffee to affect your sleeping patterns (whoa, girl), this interrupt your skin cycle and ability to heal. Wean yourself off with herbal teas a couple of time a week.

“Eat your vegetables” applies here. A diet of mostly unprocessed foods is also beneficial. So is drinking 2-3 litres of water a day to flush out toxins, but because it’s bland, we add The Beauty Chef Hydration to make it addictive. Adding foods high in zinc (pumpkin, cashew, quinoa and beef) helps regulate hormone levels, which we want. And finally, there’s a strong case for probiotics and ferments like those found in supplements like The Beauty Chef  that cultivate a healthier gut for better digestion and detoxification. Better out than in – or blocked, as they say.