How Your Diet Impacts Your Skin
Diets and how they affect our skin are always hot topics for teenagers, dermatologists and those dealing with skin issues. With limited research on how diet affects your acne, there are polarising opinions on whether certain food types can help or hinder your acne, causing breakouts and acne irritation on your skin.
Generally speaking, your diet can impact your skin both negatively and positively and these impacts can have an indirect influence on your acne. For example, hydration is key to maintaining a healthy skin profile that keeps your skin supple, hydrated and nourished. By hydrating your skin with regular water consumption, your skin can flush out more of the toxins, debris and oils that can build up through the course of a normal day and begin to clog pores in the process. Removing such harmful materials helps to reduce the chance of follicle blockage and potential acne aggravation.
A diet that consists of processed foods and refined carbs has the potential to increase inflammation on the skin, causing more sebum oil to be produced and clogging the pores. This naturally causes acne breakouts with pimples consisting of the oil and a red, sore blemish around the spot.
These are merely two instances of how a diet may have a direct impact on your skin and an indirect impact on your acne. Eating the right foods and consuming the right level of hydration is so important to keeping your skin healthy and we often neglect this part of the process, opting for face masks, creams and lotions to do the job. Of course, these cleansing routines help tremendously in maintaining a healthy and clean skin profile, however, they’re merely one part of a complex puzzle in keeping our skin (the largest organ on our bodies) in perfect condition.
Different Types of Diets That Help with Acne
While there is no significant evidence that all diets can help with acne, there are diets that can improve your skin and in turn help with potentially reducing and improving your acne. Each will depend on the individual case, as acne is the most complex skin condition in the world, with nearly 90% of people suffering from some form of acne throughout their lifetime, mild or severe.
Drinking Water to Help with Acne
As already mentioned, water helps the profile of your skin. Dehydrated skin can be easily irritated and cause acne breakouts. Typically, nutritionists recommend 8 glasses of water a day. The benefits go beyond helping with hydration. Water also helps with the reduction of bags under the eyes and tired-looking skin by helping to keep blood cells high in hydration. Blood cells consist of 80% water. As blood is used by the heart to pump oxygen around the body, this ensures that the blood pumping through the skin is high in oxygen, keeping the skin strong and healthy.
Eating Your Greens
The amazing thing about fruit and veg is the powerful antioxidants they contain. Fruits like blueberries, cranberries and raspberries contain high levels of antioxidants and phytoflavinoids and are also high in potassium and vitamin C. All of this contributes to decreasing your chances of cancer (including skin cancer), along with anti-inflammatory properties that help to reduce red blemishes and inflamed acne on the skin.
This, among the vitamin C and antioxidants, help maintain a strong heart and a strong heart can pump highly oxygenated blood around the body more effectively, again having indirect impacts on our skin’s profile and health.
Berries aren’t the only fruit or veg to consider – oranges are high in vitamin C, bananas are high in potassium, foods like Kale are super high in vitamins A, B, C, and K, as well as antioxidants and phytonutrients which promote collagen production which increases skin cell rejuvenation and detoxifies the skin.
Vitamin C – The Perfect Vitamin for Your Skin
Dermatologists advocate vitamin C so highly because it is a powerful antioxidant. Vitamin C works similarly to water by hydrating the skin and removing toxins from the body. It also helps the skin produce more collagen, which improves acne scar healing, by hydrating and elasticating the skin, reducing tightness and dryness.
Dairy and Acne
Studies show that dairy contributes to acne. This is a result of the hormones induced into the animal producing the dairy for them to biologically produce more milk. These hormones are passed through into the milk and are consumed by us. This can cause an imbalance in our hormones, which can increase acne breakouts as a result of increased sebum oil produced by the sebum gland.
Low Glycemic Diets and Acne
Research also shows that over a 10-week period with a low glycemic index intake, acne was reduced. The glycemic load is essentially the quantity of carbohydrates consumed as well as the rate of carbohydrate absorption. Therefore, managing your carbohydrate intake and the pace at which you absorb these can further help reduce the potential for acne breakouts as a result of carbs. Heavy carb diets should be reviewed with a dermatologist. Equally, no carbs may not be a wise route as carbohydrates help the body in other ways.
Consuming OMEGA-3
OMEGA-3 is a popular diet due to the anti-inflammatory properties the oil produces. Naturally, this is believed to help with acne flare-ups that result in red blemishes and soreness. This inflamed active acne can potentially be reduced with higher consumption of OMEGA-3 fatty oils and acids found in fish as well as chia seeds, walnuts and oils. This is important for both meat-eaters and vegans in helping with their skin profile.
About Stratum Dermatology Clinic
Stratum Clinics are part of The Dermatology Partnership, a national network of state-of-the-art dermatology facilities across the UK. As trusted experts in dermatology, the ethos for Stratum Clinics is to offer care under the direct supervision of fully accredited dermatological specialists and to provide cutting edge dermatological treatment.
Stratum Dermatology Clinic has over 30 years of experience in skin, hair and nail conditions and treatments. Stratum’s Acne Dermatologists are certified by the British Association of Dermatologists and have detailed experience in treating acne.