It’s not rare to hear that eating a bar of chocolate will make you break out. Or if you are of Asian background, like me, a bowl of ramen might do the same thing. In fact, maybe you have personal experience of it. So does your diet really affect your skin and cause breakouts?
Most dermatologists say, “Yes,” or want to say, “Yes.” Unfortunately, there are no significant studies done with enough population size and parameters to truly drive the question home. But having been in the research field myself, I know how expensive a study like this would be as well as the difficulty it would have to execute a definitive study that cancels out all other variables, like exercise, environment, work, etc. Plus, it’s not like a drug or medication would come out of this type of study that would profit a pharmaceutical company, so it is unlikely that an investment for an in-depth study on this will happen any time in the near future.
Although I am all about the facts and research when writing an article or giving advice on anything, this is one of the few times I would go ahead and answer a question without research backing me up. Yes, diet can absolutely affect your skin. For those of you that exercise, you know that diet and wise food intake is half the battle. Well if the food you eat affects the way your muscles and fat react, same can be said for your skin, which is not only your largest but also one of the fastest regenerating and cell dividing organs of your body.
Even without specific research, I can confidently say from simply knowing my anatomy and physiology that our skin is affected by our diet. The food we eat is digested, filtered, and absorbed into the blood stream. That same blood goes and provides nutrients to all our cells which include the ones making up the skin. Although our body has an amazing natural filtration system in both the selective absorption of the intestines and the liver, we know that it can’t filter everything. So if you are eating too many oily foods or maybe too many sugary treats, those fats and sugars will make its way into the blood and to your cells. The skin’s reaction to the various nutrients, if we can even call it that, will be different from person to person, so it is hard to say whether this will cause a breakout or not.
Now, while diet can affect your skin, it is important to remember that there are so many bigger and better researched factors that affect your skin. From sun exposure to bacterial infections, there are so many factors that have been studied to cause skin conditions, whether it is irritation, acne, or even cancer. In order to take good care of you skin, make sure you first cover the basics of cleansing, exfoliating, hydrating, and moisturizing your skin. The ClearLee Clear Skin Set is great for covering these steps. Also, make sure to protect your skin from the sun when going outside.
And, of course, eating healthy will be an added bonus for good skin care. In fact, it’ll be awesome for your overall health! There are plenty of balanced food charts, recipes, and meal plans out there so I won’t go too much into detail. In fact, my friend Nathan from Quick10Workouts recently came out with a meal plan. I was lucky enough to be one of the first people to see it thought it would be awesome to share his hard work! If you have any questions, comments, or experiences of food making you break out, please share below and I’ll do my best to read all of them! Thanks for reading and I’ll catch you next time.