No sugar diet to clear acne

wheels6030
wheels6030 Posts: 26 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I'm not one to go in for prescription medications and things like that, so I've been trying to figure out how to clear my acne naturally (I still have acne now graduating from college and it doesn't look like it's going anywhere so I don't want to have this until I'm 30). A lot of medications have so many side effects that I'm afraid of messing up my body when there might be a dietary solution. After reading a lot of articles, it seems that sugar may in fact be a cause of acne even though many studies say that junk food is not. Apparently when sugar raises your insulin levels the insulin stimulates excess production of androgens. For a person that is prone to hormonal acne (I think that's my problem) this can worsen acne. Since I've tried everything else, I'm going to do this for a while and see if it helps....just over the first few days I've noticed that my skin is noticeably less oily. Coincidence? I don't know, but I'm going to keep going and see if it helps in the long run.

Right now my diet is nothing with sugar or artificial sugar added (all my sugar comes from natural things like fruit etc. and whatever sugar is in whole foods) and no refined carbs. Additionally, I'm eating nothing processed since most processed food has added sugar and I don't have time to patrol the labels. I'm also gluten and diary free (other reasons, although my skin did clear a bit when I had to get rid of them). Before I started this I never realized how much sugar I eat every day! I'm a real sugar-aholic it seems. lol

Has anyone else tried cutting out sugar to cure acne?! Please let me know what your results were if you tried this!

Replies

  • sassyjae21
    sassyjae21 Posts: 1,217 Member
    I have never tried to get rid of sugar to cure acne. I don't believe that sugar or diet plays a role in it, but i've never researched it specifically. I do know that cutting out soda, chocolate, etc, doesn't do a lick of good. I tried.

    Tried almost every over the counter medicine and every antibiotic out there. Nothing worked.

    The last resort was to do Accutane. Depending on who you are, it can be a miracle drug, or an awful drug. It was a miracle drug for me. I was on it 6 months. Got rid of all of it.

    ETA: I am 30 and I JUST now got rid of it. This was after 15-17 years of having it pretty bad. And if you're a woman, it's even worse. I wish I wouldn't have wasted so much time with other "cures".
  • just_Jennie1
    just_Jennie1 Posts: 1,233
    I am not a fan of taking any sort of prescription for anything.

    I personally would try an antibacterial bar. I had wicked acne a few years ago and nothing worked. In fact all the 'acne fighters' seemed to make it worse. Turns out I'm allergic to the syacillic acid!! Before I went to a dermatologist I bought an anti bacterial bar by Cetaphil to see if maybe it was more bacterial related. After a week of use there was a HUGE improvement to my acne. Now that is all I will wash my face with and I don't even use any of the OTC crap for the small breakouts I get.

    Try the sugar elimination and if that doesn't work try an anti bacterial bar. It's done wonders for me!!
  • TheSlorax
    TheSlorax Posts: 2,401 Member
    The link between diet and acne is inconclusive at best. I really like this write up on it, as it includes sources and mentions the limitations of the studies:

    http://www.acne.org/diet-and-acne.html
    No matter what anti-acne diet you embark upon, while you may see a short-term reduction in acne while your body loses weight, symptoms are likely to return as your weight levels off. If your goal is to achieve completely clear skin, your time is likely much better spent effectively treating your skin than chasing any theoretical, yet unproven, diet.


    I had moderate to severe cystic acne three years ago. The first thing I learned was that it's important to treat the type of acne you have. Is it hormonal? Caused by excess oil production? Caused by dryness? Are your products causing irritation, leading to your breakouts? What about the actual blemishes themselves, are they cystic? Blackheads? Whiteheads?

    Especially since you are not sure what is causing the acne, I would recommend seeing a dermatologist. They can prescribe you treatments suited for your needs (not necessarily oral medication). In the meantime, throw out everything you're using and just stop with the products for a while. See if that helps. Reintroduce products that do not have comedogenic ingredients only: http://www.acne.org/comedogenic-list.html Do so one product at a time so you can pinpoint new or worsening breakouts.

    Good luck with everything, and please don't cut out anything you don't need to... believe me, you will thank yourself later.
  • JTick
    JTick Posts: 2,131 Member
    My brother had really severe acne for a long time...his ended up being an intolerance to dairy. He went away to boot camp and drastically cut his dairy intake, and as soon as he did his skin cleared up. It's at least worth a try.
  • April_KT
    April_KT Posts: 332 Member
    every time i over load on candy or chocolate i always break out and i dont usually break out so hope this works for you! i know if i keep it away i dont break out.
  • NaomiLyn15
    NaomiLyn15 Posts: 388 Member
    Its worth a shot, but give it time (like 4-6 weeks). I had to cut out processed sugar and carbs from my diet to clear mine up. If I even add them back in for a week it comes back. I have found for my body they are directly related. But, that may not be the case for you. But, it doesn't hurt to try, and cutting out processed sugar isn't bad for you. Good luck.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,149 Member
    My acne is from having dirt in my skin pores. I wash with Lever soap daily, with a rare Noxema treatment a couple times a year. Food's not been the cause of mine acne. Guess I'm lucky.
  • Ainar
    Ainar Posts: 858 Member
    Since I started to do alkaline type of diet my acne almost vanished completely, it was like magic, at least for me. And when I go back for a few days, take a cheat days or something, I notice I get more of acne back after couple days, and when I go back to alkaline diet it goes away again. So I recommend to try it. I also feel other benefits apart from that like more energy and strength. My allergies seems to went down tremendously, I even lose fat faster. What I think is due to my overall hormones getting better balance. There isn't much scientific data about this since this is still something we have to study quite a lot. But all I can tell this works simply like magic for me.

    I tried to not ate sugar or exclude some other foods from my diet what was told not to be good and it decreased a little but not that noticeable. But now on alkaline diet I still ate sugar and processed foods. But as far as I keep it 80% clean it's great. I can still ate a lot of sweets but balance it out and clean my body by drinking couple of more liters of green drinks, or water with lemon and eating a bonus portion of some alkaline vegetables. It's all about balance acidic foods with alkaline foods.

    The concept is basically the same as getting ride of sugar - to keep your body clean from toxins and acids. Which sugar, by the way, is - very acidic.
  • lynn1982
    lynn1982 Posts: 1,439 Member
    I've struggled with adult acne. It cleared up after I gave up gluten and added healthy fats to my diet. For me, it was a food intolerance and I was missing things in my diet. I wasn't actively trying to treat my acne, but it was a welcome bi-product.

    As others have said, you need to treat the CAUSE of your acne. Your skin is your largest organ, so it makes sense that if you're feeding it crap then it's going to show on the outside.
  • Peachygirl14
    Peachygirl14 Posts: 46
    Acne can be hormonal. Can be due to the cosmetics used. Or due to oily face. Could be an irritation on something you put on your face

    have you tried St Ives Blemish control facial wash with 2% Salicylic acid? It worked for me
  • Fitty_Cent
    Fitty_Cent Posts: 41 Member
    I did every sort of diet experimentation known to man, with only mild success. Went to a dermatologist and my skin became better almost overnight. My advice is to just go to a professional. I was also anti-drug until I got my new face.
  • Kali112
    Kali112 Posts: 87 Member
    PLEASE get yourself checked for PCOS. I wasted many many years with antibiotics, creams, cutting out dairy, using different face washes, using different contraceptive pills, etc etc etc until I had a scan of my stomach and they noticed I had a few small cysts. it is extremely common. I eventually went on accutane which (like above) was the only thing that worked. having pcos produces excess testosterone which is unlikely to be heavily reduced by diet alone (trust me, i tried, and I have never been REALLY overweight, my highest weight is about 135). I'm not saying that diet can't help-i think if you are very overweight with PCOS then it can definitelyt make a difference to reduce-but my derm pretty much said that accutane was the only feasible option. And he was right.
  • Kali112
    Kali112 Posts: 87 Member
    I also think 'acne' and 'spots' are different. Specifically if you have persistant, low-grade acne around your chin and jawline, this is indicative of pcos (again, according to my dermatologist, I am not a doctor). Spots in other areas may be something different.
  • mimimilka
    mimimilka Posts: 3
    Oh my gosh, yes. I have had always problems with my face (around my mouth to be exact), and nothing ever worked. God knows, I tried everything that is available on market. And I'm 38!

    Two months ago I quit eating anything sweet (because of my diet), and two weeks into my new regimen my acne disappeared! So I am happy to confirm that yes, some natures of acne are related to the sugar.
  • ils_1231
    ils_1231 Posts: 249 Member
    i always had clear skin up until a year ago... adult acne sucks. it was on my back and nothing that i did made it go away. i looked up on forums online and people used head and shoulders as a body wash to "cure" it. i think no sugar or added sugar might work, but i also dont know if i believe sugar is the culprit. anyways, this really helped... just be careful not to use it on your face because its too aggressive, but for body acne it works really well.
  • Jamr8231
    Jamr8231 Posts: 73 Member
    I use to suffer with bad acne for a while. What cured me was completely cutting all dairy out of my diet (yes, there is a connection there) and taking a teaspoon of turmeric in water every morning.
  • melsinct
    melsinct Posts: 3,512 Member
    Cutting out dairy also helped my skin. I was doing an elimination diet for food allergies and discovered when I don't eat dairy, my skin doesn't break out. Too bad it took me 20 years to figure that out! Google "dairy acne" and you will see many people have the same problem with dairy.
  • laurashatch
    laurashatch Posts: 1 Member
    Personally, I cut out all sugar and diary (because I was too chicken to do a complete Whole 30) and my acne reduced a lot. I was also using prescription from the dermatologist which helped a lot, but when I combined it with diet my acne lessoned even more. I think try it and see but I'm all for going to the dermatologist as well.
  • libbydoodle11
    libbydoodle11 Posts: 1,351 Member
    I haven't heard of the no sugar thing for acne but I've heard of the no dairy or gluten for clearing acne. Here is a helpful website...

    http://www.acne.org

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