Diet and Acne - For years we have heard how diet is not a major cause of acne right?
Personally I never rule anything out and try to be in touch with new things to add to an acne prevention regime. So I was intrigued by this news story from the Herald Sun:
Food for thought
Over the past 30 to 40 years many doctors have dismissed the idea that diet is a cause of acne. But recent research indicates that what you eat impacts on your skin.
Professor Neil Mann, professor of human nutrition at RMIT University, studied the link between diet and acne after chatting with an anthropologist colleague who noted primitive societies with a typical hunter/gatherer diet had no incidences of acne.
They didn’t even have a name for it. Sticking to a low-GI diet of whole, minimally processed foods, such as fruit and vegetables, lean meat and a small amount of whole, unprocessed grains, could help clear the skin.
“We know there are many metabolic processes going on in the body in regards to what we eat, so we were sceptical about claims that diet has no relation to acne,” Professor Mann says.
A basic culprit is high insulin levels, Professor Mann says. “High levels of refined carbohydrates elevate the levels of insulin,” he says.
“High insulin levels cause an overproduction of sebum and that helps to block the pore. High insulin levels also cause a certain type of androgen, DHEAS protein, to rise, which, in turn, causes the sebum levels to rise.” HeraldSun.com.au (July 6th, 2008 - Australian Newspaper)
The story goes on to discuss many things about adult acne, but I particularly perked my ears up when I saw that experts are now supporting the idea that, sticking to a low GI diet can help with acne, and it certainly cant help!
