Changing my diet has made a dramatic difference in my never-ending adult acne.

This is going to be really long so apologies, but if it helps even one person it is worth it. I know how it feels to be at your absolute wits end dealing with acne and skin issues. I know the cycles of shame, hiding, picking my skin, not turning lights on in the bathroom, skipping dates and events etc. I know the cycle of getting so excited to try a new miracle product that you have read countless posts on only to be inevitably let down again and again.

Every time I bought a new product I always day dreamed that I’d be able to post one of these to share with the world how I finally found something that worked for my skin, yet that moment never came no matter how many products I bought.

The things I have tried over the years are too numerous to name, but include things like prescription azaleic acid, stridex, stronger salicylic peels, glycolic acid in various strengths, gentler AHAs like lactic, niacinamide, clay masks, tretinoin (gave me severe dry eyes), sulfur ointment, nizoral with a fungal safe routine. And I’ve tried every combination of these that you can think of. I’ve tried doing nothing and just focusing on hydrating. I’ve tried cutting ingredients out thinking surely it must be the fatty alcohols, dimenthicone, oils, [insert ingredient here] clogging my skin and causing acne.

I was resistant to dietary changes because I already ate what I thought was healthy. Certainly healthier than most people. I didn’t eat dairy, didn’t drink alcohol, rarely ate things like fast food, was mindful of added sugar. I also didn’t want to have to make a difficult change. It didn’t seem fair that my friends could eat whatever they wanted and have perfect skin. I wanted an easy fix. A cream or ointment that would make everything go away.

Also I often saw people on Reddit claiming there is no scientific evidence that links diet to acne, which isn’t true. For some reason people get really sensitive about diet stuff. Probably because eating is a very personal thing and no one wants to be told that what they are ingesting is wrong for their body or causing illness and inflammation. Also people have strong emotional ties to food.

Well a month ago I decided to dig further into it, and I can’t believe I waited this long. I started to read things that made a lot of sense. Reddit posts, studies, blogs. I had so many ‘aha!’ moments.

I am barely a month into changing my diet and I honestly can’t believe it. I went from getting 4 or 5 pimples a day (often times huge painful swollen ones) to 1 or 2 tiny whiteheads every few days. The little pimples I do get extract way easier and heal a lot quicker. My skin is glowing! I no longer dread waking up and seeing what new bullshit cropped up on my face overnight. To say I am thrilled would be an understatement. And I am not even a month into this! I literally can’t believe the changes.

Ok enough rambling. What is the diet? I am eating an anti inflammatory, low GI, mostly whole food diet. I am eating a wide variety of vegetables, lots of berries, nut butters (only macadamia, walnut and cashew butter though), pastured eggs, grass fed or pastured meats, and fatty fish like salmon. You want to eat things that are low on the glycemic index and eat things high in omega 3s and antioxidants. You want to avoid things high in omega 6 which is why I don’t eat peanut or almond butter. Too much omega 6 and not enough omega 3 can cause inflammation. For example walnuts have an omega 6:3 ratio of around 4 to 1. Peanuts on the other hand (I used to eat a lot of peanut butter in smoothies) are something like 2,000 to 1.

I am eating dairy free, gluten free, added sugar free. I mostly shop the perimeter of the grocery store but I do eat lentils, beans, lentil pasta, salsa, spices, canned coconut milk for smoothies etc. This diet may sound insanely restrictive, but if you have even the most basic cooking skills you can eat absolutely delicious food.

So why this diet? No dairy is obvious and for some people that is enough to fix their skin. If you haven’t given up dairy that is the very first place you should start. There was a huge study with over 40,000 people linking dairy to acne. The problem for me is I was already dairy free before this and it had no impact.

The real aha moment was when I read that there is a link between higher blood sugar levels and increased sebum production as well as general inflammation in the body. My skin was always so damn clogged up. I feel like every pore had a ton of sebum which would cause massive amounts of clogged pores and closed comedones. Almost all of them would eventually become inflamed and turn into red angry pimples. Red acne is inflammation.

When I started looking up a lot of the ‘healthy’ foods I used to eat they were really high on the glycemic index, meaning they would cause large blood sugar spikes leading to…increased sebum and inflammation! The jasmine rice I loved to eat? High on the GI. Baked sweet potatoes? Super high on the GI. No sugar added Lara bars? Spiking the shit out of my blood sugar. They still had like 18g of sugar due to the dried dates.

Other foods had a lot of omega 6 which can cause inflammation if you are not also taking in enough omega 3. I never ate fatty fish, I ate a ton of peanut butter etc.

The conclusion of this is that my skin was trying to tell me something wasn’t right. When you have inflammation and infection on your skin there is something happening deeper within.

This last month has been a huge revelation for me and a massive shift in how I look at and approach food. I have started to view food as medicine for the body. I used to get so annoyed with having to cook all the time, but now I’ve slowed down and started to really enjoy the process. What could be more important in my day than nourishing and taking care of the one body that I have?

If you’ve tried everything else, do yourself a favor and at least give dietary changes a shot. Commit to one month and if you don’t see any changes then maybe it’s not the fix for you. But if you used all of the topicals and nothing has worked this may be the change you need to get things under control.