If you are somehow blaming today’s skin breakouts from yesterday’s food binge, then you just might be onto something. There is a hefty list of foods out there that can indeed trigger major acne breakouts and what’s worse, these culprits can just be sitting comfortably at your kitchen (or at the candy counter at some convenience store).
With this new-found information, your recourse is to immediately purge your fridge, but don’t do that just yet said Cassandra Lanning, a well-known aesthetician and nutritionist. She explains that “bio individuality” is a big component when it comes to acne triggers. Everyone is gonna have a bunch of varying acne triggers—it could be because of stress, food, depression and more. This means that anything from blood type, genetics, and/or metabolism can affect your skin in a negative way when it comes to what you eat.
Still, there are a handful of foods out there that can stimulate oil production, hormone imbalances and even inflammation—all of which can result to a pimple breakout no matter what your body type is like. Below are some of the most acne-triggering foods/ingredients. And if you noticed that your skin condition is turning for the worse, then maybe these sneaky edibles are the ones really to blame.
1.Dairy
Because of its growth hormone content, milk products tend to be a major factor where acne is concerned. Also, from a basic nutritional standpoint, both low and non-fat milk are nothing but explosive sugar bombs. Removing the fat content from milk will leave it with nothing but just sugar which could measure at a whopping 12 grams per cup.The fat content of the milk is there for a reason—it helps break down the fat-soluble vitamins A and D found in milk for better and faster absorption in the body. Without the fats, these vitamins will be left un-absorbed and you’ll be dealing with a sugary cocktail that could drive your skin into hormonal disarray.
2. Sugar
Acne is really an inflammation of the skin—and one of its biggest triggers happens to be refined sugar. When sugar is ingested, it makes your insulin levels to spike which results to an inflammation in the system. For those who are prone to acne, this means getting a new and fresh crop of pustules. What’s more interesting is when you combine milk with sugar and you’ll sure be in for trouble. If somehow a person says that eating chocolates makes them breakout, chances are they are referring to milk chocolates. If you can’t pass up on your chocolate addiction, your next best bet is to go for the dark variety which contains amounts of sugar and higher antioxidant contents. The bottom line is to “choose
your poison’ but make sure to do it wisely.
3. Peanuts
This particular legume is an all-time zit trigger that most people never see coming. Peanuts contain androgen—a hormone that can irritate the skin’s follicles by inducing oil production, which then exacerbates pimple breakouts. This means that your favourite peanut-butter and jelly combo is silently fast-tracking your way to pimple-ville and oil city.
4. Iodine
Iodine is not only used for wounds, in fact iodine can be found in almost all of your favourite foods. Iodized has become a kitchen staple, but the most common trigger is from consuming high doses of iodine from seaweeds. So sushi enthusiasts, take heed, as seafood comes packed with iodine too. Algae are admittedly another vessel for high iodine content. If you are somehow a fan of green smoothies or supplements, then this is going to be effectively apart of your diet. Studies have shown that consumption of small amounts of iodine-rich foods (about 3-4 servings in a week) won’t necessarily aggravate your acne situation, but going overboard will of course do.
On a final note and contrary to popular belief, acne takes 60-90 days to form—so that’s about three months for a crop of pimples to brew. So if you feel that the foods you are ingesting are somehow triggering your breakouts, try going off one food ingredient at a time for a whole month and check if you’ll see a difference. Skipping that chocolate bar tonight may not necessarily ward off tomorrow’s possible breakout, but if you stick with skipping the sweets, you just might eventually notice a “clear-up” down the road.
