The one turning point for me was when I see a doctor, she did not really give me much of topical creams/cosmetics and only said to me that I need to watch my food. At first, I was skeptical, how can I heal my acne only by watching what I eat?
But after I tried to follow her advice. I notice that food is indeed one of my main triggers for acne. I notice that certain food are really bad for me. So these are the list of worst food for acne prone skin.
1) Dairy
Foods that contains dairy includes: Milk, Cheese, Heavy cream, Butter, Yoghurt.
Dairy are full of growth hormone, even pasteurized milk. The casein inside dairy release hormone that cause inflammation and triggers breakouts.
I used to drink milk almost everyday, and once my doctor said that I have to watch my dairy intake and starting to cut out milk from my diet, I really notice the difference after just a week.
It takes time for me to get used to consume less milk since I was a milk fan. But I realize that my skin started to produce less acne and my redness is also calmed down. Whenever I consume too much milk, my skin will be more greasy and prone to acne.
My suggestion: Limit cheese and butter consumption, and replace cow's milk with vegetable milk such as almond milk.
2) Sugar
Foods that contains sugar includes: Sugary drinks/juice, Soda, Breakfast cereal, High sugar fruits: Mango, Banana.
Eating too much sugar will increase our blood sugar and insulin level, which leads to inflammation in our body and triggers breakout. Not to mention that sugar also responsible in decreasing the amount of collagen which makes our skin soft.
The recommended maximum intake of sugar daily is 25g, yet we usually consume way more than that. Thanks to all of the sugary drinks and treats available everywhere. I am the kind of person who usually order Sweetened Ice Tea, it was hard at first (especially when I used to hate unsweetened drinks before). But when I try to start a sugarless diet for a month, I found my self prefer my drinks & food unsweetened. And surprisingly, I did not miss sugar at all.
My suggestion: try to train ourselves not to be addicted to sugar by gradually decreasing our sugar intake. Or try a 2-4 weeks sugary drinks diet.
3) Fatty Foods
Fatty foods includes: Egg yolk (the egg whites are fine), Chicken skin & fats, Animal's fats, Coconut milk.
Eating fatty foods increase sebum production which will accumulate in the skin and can clog pores and cause acne. Since my skin are super oily. Eating fat foods will only make my skin worse.
Egg yolks are probably one of the hardest to do. Egg yolks are almost everywhere (in some deep fried foods, bakery, cake). And I used to love sunny sides up so much! But knowing how it really affect my skin and how it is also very high in cholesterol. I started to take out whole egg yolks from my diet. I still allow myself to eat egg whites and also food which contains egg yolk such as bread, fried foods (occasionally), cakes and other food which may contain egg yolk. But I never eat a whole egg yolks anymore.
My Suggestion: Opt for a healthy fatty food such as salmon and avocado. Eat fatty foods occasionally.
4) Processed Food
Processed foods includes: Chips, Cookies, Pizza, Potato chips.
Processed food are bad for our skin since they are usually high in trans fat and sugar thus can cause inflammation to our skin. Other than bad to our skin, they are also bad for our health. I suggest that we gradually decrease our processed food intake.
Suggestion: Gradually change processed food with fresh produce. Eat processed food occasionally.
5) Seafood
Seafood includes: Prawn, Calamari, Squid, Shellfish, Lobster, Crab.
Seafood can also makes our acne worse and more inflamed. I felt a little bit sad since seafood is one of my favorite food and this is one of the hardest food for me to take out completely from my diet. I still eat seafood sometimes, and I always watch my intake every time I consume it. And thankfully, my skin does not react bad to fish!
My Suggestion: Eat seafood occasionally, treat it as a "celebration food" and watch the intake.
6) Soy
I just found out around 2 months ago that I, unfortunately allergic to soy :( I really like soy milk since I cannot drink too much regular milk. I drank 3 glasses of soymilk, only to get a very bad breakout for the next 2 weeks. I stop drinking soy milk since then.
But surprisingly, tempeh (soy cakes) and tofu doesn't break me out. Only soy cereal bars and soy milk breaks me out.
My Suggestion: Limit soy intake.
7) Nut
Nuts Include: Peanut, Peanut Butter, Satay with peanut sauce, any peanut sauce (gado-gado, etc). Basically anything with peanut in it.
This is classic, since almost everyone ever heard that peanut will cause acne. Peanut are very high in protein and fat, and they are hard to digest, therefore causing our immune system produce antibodies which inflames our sebaceous glands and cause pimple.
My Suggestion: Take out peanut completely.
Now, there are still other food that caused acne, but these 7 above are the worst one, atleast for me. Now it looks like its so hard to maintain this diet because sugar, fatty food, dairy, processed food is everywhere! But really, it's not that hard, the key is not to take out these food completely from our diet, but to be aware of how much we put those on our body. It's all about moderation.
And now I kind of thankful of how my body reacts to these food, because almost all of the food listed above aren't really the healthiest food. Dairy, sugar, fatty food, processed food are the main culprit of cancer, diabetes and heart attack. Whenever I develop an acne, I felt like I am being reminded by my skin that I am not taking a good care of how and what I eat.
And I also learn that all of the food listed above are addicting. Once you have maintain to consume less of sugar, fatty food/processed food. You will be surprised how you will stop craving for these items. And your body will thank you.
That's it! Thanks for reading and wish you a healthy skin!
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