Nutrition is one of the most important components of your health—and this includes your skin. In a previous post I discussed the foods that are great for your skin, so now I'll be a buzzkill and touch upon some of the foods that are not so great. To make up for being the bearer of bad news, I also included some better alternatives to soothe your cravings.
Dairy is amongst the biggest culprits for hormonal acne. You can typically tell whether your acne is hormonal if you are a woman in your 20s-50s, and your breakouts are mainly concentrated in the perioral area (the chin and around the mouth). I have witnessed the transformation firsthand in patients that cured their moderate to severe hormonal acne solely by cutting out dairy. This correlation has been reinforced by studies executed by the American Academy of Dermatology, but the skeptic in you should still be wondering how this works. The simple reason dairy causes hormonal acne is due to the influx of hormones from the animal producing it. These are the natural hormones produced by cows, so organic dairy (read: healthier cows) actually tend to have even more of these inflammatory hormones than the generically raised type.
The good news is that you probably already drink almond milk and you've been over the froyo craze of the early aughts for a while now (you can even buy yogurt made from coconut water at Whole Foods!). But herein lies the problem: you f**king love cheese, because you're a human. Samesies. Luckily, there is somewhat of a workaround here. Goat cheese, while it does contain some of these hormones, contains a significantly smaller amount of them. Because goats are a similar size to humans, our hormone levels are also similar. There is also a considerably lower level of casein, the ingredient in milk that triggers milk allergies. As a bonus, goat's milk is also generally easier than cow's milk on the digestive tract, since it has smaller fat globules. If you think of how much fat a baby cow must need to grow into a full sized cow—sometimes upwards of 1,500 pounds—you'll start to get the picture. So next time go for the goat on that cheese plate, and enjoy in moderation.
Reducing simple sugars in your diet can help with both aging prevention and acne. As explained by dermatologist Dr. Nicholas Perricone, starchy or sugary foods are digested very quickly, and when this happens the glucose (sugar) molecules rush to bind to your body's proteins. This includes a skincare gal's very favorite protein—collagen. The converted collagen fibers eventually begin to all bind together, reducing skin's elasticity and glow. The rapid digestion of glucose also causes a spike in insulin, which is an inflammatory and common culprit for acne.
The glycemic index (GI) is a determinant of how much a particular food effects blood sugar, a measurement originally developed for diabetics. The “bad sugars” are ones with little to no fiber that are digested very quickly—white bread, potatoes, pasta and rice, fruit and carrot juice, sweets, and processed food. Most fruits and nearly all vegetables are okay in moderation, but be careful with grapes, bananas and tropical fruits such as mango and pineapple, which have a very high sugar content. Some foods you would traditionally think of as carby, such as slow cooked oatmeal, lentils and beans, get a thumbs up due to their high fiber content. Since the sugars in these foods are converted to glucose at a slower rate, they don't cause that spike in insulin that simple carbohydrates do. Replace your pasta with zucchini and summer squash in the warmer months and spaghetti squash in the winter, and I promise you will hardly miss it. An extremist would instruct you to cut out bread, but I think a super multigrain-y, fiber rich, and minimally processed slice every once in a while won't kill ya (you need a vehicle for your avo toast, after all).
Coffee is probably the least offensive of the group, but definitely worth mentioning. It is both highly acidic and causes a diuretic effect. While the whole “alkalizing your body” craze has little to no scientific evidence (sorry Gwyneth), consuming something with a particularly high acidity does increase the production of the hormone cortisol. Cortisol controls your body's oil production, so consistently elevated cortisol levels can lead to acne. This is the same reason why stress can lead to acne, rosacea, and other skin conditions, since cortisol is also released during times of stress (don't forget to do your yoga). In addition, large quantities of coffee can be dehydrating due to it's diuretic effect. A better alternative? Switch to matcha, but don't consume with abandon. Matcha is a tea is made of the most superfoody green tea leaves, which are dried and then ground into a whole-leaf powder. A high quality matcha can contain nearly twice the caffeine levels of coffee. However, since it is digested over a much longer period of time, you won't feel that heart-racing feeling, and it has a much less significant effect on your cortisol levels. An added bonus: a wealth of glow-inducing antioxidants.
