While most dermatologists will not confirm that
altering diet may prevent acne, it is standard practice
for many doctors to advice patients to avoid foods
that seem to cause more severe breakouts.
It is widely accepted that supplements such as zinc
and vitamin A help reduce the number and severity of
acne breakouts. In fact, Acutane and Retin A, popular
prescription medications used to treat acne are both
made from forms of vitamin A.
Research
Early studies about diet and acne focused on specific
foods believed to trigger acne breakouts. Most of these studies found no evidence that individual foods
cause acne.
Studies of the diets of ethnic groups that have a
low incidence of acne form the basis of most of the
acne diets. Studies of the diets of tribes in New Guinea,
Paraguay, and the Bantu of South Africa, all of whom
have little or no acne, show that they eat a primarily
plant-based diet. Similarly, in other countries where
the diet is plant-based such as Japan, there is a relatively
low occurrence of acne.
Studies have shown that half of acne patients
tested had abnormal glucose levels, and in another
study, 80%of premenstrual women with acne had
abnormal glucose metabolism. These data and others
that show a high carbohydrate diet increases the levels
of testosterone in the blood of both men and women,
have lead to the recommendation of reducing the
amount high carbohydrate foods or foods containing
high levels of refined sugar to treat acne.
Researchers have developed a method for measuring
how quickly carbohydrates are converted into
glucose. The more rapidly a food is converted to glucose,
the higher the level of insulin is secreted into the
blood. The scale is called the glycemic index. Eating
lower glycemic index foods may help reduce the number
and severity of acne breakouts.
A large study of over 45,000 nurses found a link
between the amount of dairy products these women
consumed and the severity of acne they experienced.
Women who reported consuming higher amounts of
dairy products reported more severe acne. Similarly,
the two ethnic groups with little or no acne also consumed
no dairy products.
Several studies have compared the results of zinc
supplementation with oral antibiotic therapy to
resolved acne and found zinc to be almost as effective
as the antibiotic tetracycline.
