Acne and Diet

A Dutch study offers detailed insight into the more complex relationships between acne and diet. Dutch researchers enlisted 302 volunteers to agree to have their faces measured with a device called a sebum meter, and to give blood samples for measurements of common nutrients. They also filled out diaries of their daily food selections. Some of the results of the study were expected. Some require a new look at acne and nutrition.

A not-surprising finding of the Dutch study was that when it comes to acne, there are good fats and there are bad fats. The skin uses lipids to stay supple and moisturized. Flexible, supple skin allows for a normal flow of sebum out of pores that prevents acne. The more beneficial lipids there are in the skin, the less sebum remains to clog pores.

Human skin makes beneficial lipids from saturated fatty acids, the kinds that appear in avocados, dark chocolate, nuts, and seeds. Saturated fatty acids also prevent the growth of bacteria. A dietary deficiency of saturated fatty acids decreases the suppleness of the skin and aggravates acne by allowing bacteria to multiply unchecked.

Not every kind of fat is good for your skin. Unsaturated fatty acids are excellent food for bacteria. These are the kinds of fatty acids found in margarine and shortening. Mass manufacturers of inexpensive desserts use them to stabilize just about any kind of baked good found on the store shelf wrapped in cellophane.

Not only do these “bad” fatty acids feed bacteria, the skin cannot use the bad fatty acids to stay supple. They feed bacteria and trap them in pores. In the Dutch study, no dietary factor was more predictive of the health of the skin than which kind of fatty acid predominated in the bloodstream. Saturated fats such as those found in butter, cream, whole milk, and cheese were clearly protective of the skin. Monosaturated fats such as those found in avocados, chocolate, nuts, and seeds were even more protective. Unsaturated fats were clearly detrimental.

Since I have been published several times advising readers to limit consumption of sugar to reduce the severity of acne, I would like to tell you that the study showed that eating high-carb foods and simple sugars increased sebum in the skin and decreased hydration. That is not, however, what the researchers found.

In the Dutch study, consumption of carbohydrates had almost nothing to do with the health of the pores. The statistics did not suggest that sugar is good for acne, but they did not prove that it is bad. There is a theory that acne results from localized insulin resistance or “diabetes of the skin,” but these clinical data do not support it.

I would also like to tell you that low-fat, high-protein foods are helpful in acne. The Dutch researchers found that the consumption of protein was associated with greater hydration of the skin, making it soft and supple, but consumption of proteins without fat also seemed to result in greater production of pore-clogging sebum. In fact, protein was almost as closely correlated with sebum production as consumption of the fats in margarine, corn oil, and baked goods.

The Dutch study did not find that eating fiber helps acne, but that could be because the participants, as a group, all ate a relatively high level of high-fiber foods. There may not have been sufficient contrast between highest and lowest levels of fiber consumption in this study to note a difference.

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