Ever dreamed about a cheesy burger or a delicious pasta and immediately ran to a nearby cafe? Happens, right?
The food that everyone knows is not suitable for health is always tasty. Controlling an urge to make the tummy happy is tough.
But wait.
Ever had a pimple popped out of your face the day after you eat fast food? Do you see the relation?
Sorry to break it to you like this. Your favourite cheeseburger is playing with your skin. Not directly, but what you eat has a lot to do with your skin.
Certain food types trigger hormones that rapidly activate acne on your skin. Your favourite dish is most likely to be one of them.
Fortunately, every food that causes hormonal acne has an equally delicious alternative.
Let’s find out the culprits and the saviours.
5 Types of Acne Causing Food
- Dairy Products
Milkshakes, bread-butter, cheesy sandwiches are sometimes go-to meals. But a correlation between dairy products and acne is pretty strong.
Cow milk has the potential to boost insulin levels in the blood.
Naturally, your body reacts to the excessive hormonal changes, and you know what hormones can do to your skin. More pimples overnight.
Dairy products generate Insulin-Like Growth Factor (IGF-1) that triggers skin cell growth, produces more sebum, and pops out more acne.
Alternative Food: Prefer plant-based milk instead of cow milk. It’s easy to digest, and it’s vitamin-enriched. Coconut milk, almond milk, cashew milk would be the better alternative.
2. Refined Carbohydrates and Sugar
All your favourite dishes made from either sugar or white flour, are the food that causes pimples and breakouts.
Pasta, noodles, bread made from white flour. Cakes and pastries with sugar or honey. All these are associated with an increased risk of acne.
Refined carbohydrates get absorbed in the bloodstream boosting the sugar level.
Again, excess insulin or IGF-1 in the bloodstream potentially produces extra sebum resulting in acne breakouts.
Insulin also activates the androgen hormone that can worsen acne.
Alternative Food: Whole grain food is a healthy alternative to refined grains. Prefer brown rice, oats, or healthy vegetables in your diet.
Instead of sugar, use natural sweeteners such as fruits or prefer sugar-free drinks.
3. Fast food / Oily Food
Don’t you think fast food is mean?
It’s beautiful, makes you fall in love, and then gives you a hard time with acne breakouts.
Oily fast food with extra calories and fats increase the risk of acne. Even though the correlation between fast food and acne is uncertain, it alters hormone levels.
Fatty food potentially affects gene expression, changing hormone levels. That’s why it triggers hormonal acne breakouts.
Next time you see delicious burgers and french fries, run…run for the sake of your skin.
Alternative Food: Eggs are life saviours. Include healthy fat food such as eggs, avocado, nuts in your diet. All these are full of vitamins and even good for your hair.
4. Chocolate
There isn’t strong proof as to why chocolate causes acne.
However, research shows that people who consume dark chocolate, cocoa products are more likely to develop pimples.
Chocolate or cocoa, along with sugar, also increases IGF-1 in your bloodstream.
Alternative Food: First of all, stop overeating chocolate. Try a high fibre diet. It controls the blood sugar level, thereby clearing acne. Include apples and carrots in your diet.
5. Food that is sensitive to your body
Sometimes, your body or stomach treats certain food as a threat to your health.
The immunity system attacks these food items, which releases pro-inflammatory molecules.
Hence, the food sensitive to your body causes inflammatory acne such as pustules, nodules, or even cystic, painful acne.
Alternative Food: Prefer eating easily digestible food items, less inflammatory, and healthy. You can still eat sensitive food; however, try not to consume it frequently.
It’s not like you have to stop eating your favourite food altogether. However, anything in excess is harmful to your health.
It would be best if you had a balanced diet. Better to make a whole new hormonal acne diet to get rid of acne in a week.
Remember, oily food is going to make acne worse for oily skin or acne-prone skin.
Include alternative food mentioned above in your diet as per your comfort. A gluten-free diet is also best to control acne.
Now that you know how and why diet plays a vital role in controlling hormonal acne breakouts let’s talk about some skincare routine ideas.
Simple Skincare routine
Who doesn’t want glowing skin? We all do.
While your diet is considered to improve your skin’s health, a skincare routine is an additional pampering.
Cleansing all the dirt and oil from the skin pores, getting rid of bacteria certainly reduces acne.
All you need to do while following your diet is to maintain the hygiene of your skin. Exfoliate your skin, moisturize it every night before sleeping.
Use sunscreen to prevent acne breakouts from sun rays and always use natural skincare products.
Averr Aglow Clear Skin Kit has all-natural and the best products for clear skin. Try it along with your diet, and you will see positive results in a week.
Eat healthily and beat the acne breakouts.
Pretty girls, it’s your time to show-off your evergreen glowing skin.
You go girl.