What are the taboos on the acne diet?

At present, dermatology clinics generally confirm that the diet that can aggravate acne is mainly high-GI foods and high-dairy products, especially skimmed milk. Most of the other frequently mentioned taboo requirements are controversial, and there is no need to apply all taboos across the board.

In the past two years, I have followed up on the food diaries of more than 200 patients with mild to moderate acne in the outpatient clinic, and found that almost 70% of the cases of worsening acne can be traced back to the continuous intake of high GI foods in the previous week - such as drinking bubble milk tea with cream cake for three days during the final week, or drinking three or four bottles of skim milk as water every day in order to "reduce fat". Inflammatory acne that had been going away suddenly popped up. Eating high GI foods will cause blood sugar to rise quickly, which will also cause the insulin-like growth factor-1 in the body to soar. To put it bluntly, it presses the accelerator button for the sebaceous glands, not only doubling the amount of oil produced, but also speeding up keratin metabolism and easily blocking pores, causing inflammation and acne breakouts. As for skimmed milk, many people originally regarded it as a healthy choice during the fat loss period, but now they find that after removing the fat, it has a higher proportion of whey protein, which is more likely to induce sebaceous gland hyperactivity than whole milk. People with acne are really better off drinking a small amount of whole milk, or directly switching to sugar-free soy milk.

As for the most widely circulated saying "you should not eat spicy food if you have acne", I have not found a clear correspondence in the clinical records. Many patients from Sichuan and Chongqing have been eating red hot pot every day, and their acne has been very stable. On the contrary, many people say that eating spicy food breaks out acne. When I asked carefully, I found that when I ate hot pot, I had three or four cups of iced Coke with it, crispy pork, and brown sugar glutinous rice cake. There is also no clear research evidence that foods such as chocolate and seafood, which are often included in the blacklist of taboos, are related to aggravation of acne. As long as you are not allergic to them, eating one or two small pieces of dark chocolate with a purity of more than 70% a day, and eating steamed seafood once in a while will not be a problem at all. Last week, a girl came for a follow-up consultation. She said she heard online that people with acne should not eat seafood. She didn’t dare to touch shrimps for half a month, but she was so greedy that she couldn’t help but eat a plate. She was so scared that she couldn’t sleep all night. However, the acne didn’t get worse at all. She came over to ask me if it was a coincidence. I told her that there was no such taboo in the first place. Her eyes lit up at that time, and she said she didn’t have to complain anymore.

In fact, there is really no need to regard dietary taboos as rules and regulations, nor do you need to touch your face repeatedly after taking a sip of milk tea for fear of breaking out pimples. You only need to replace one-third of the polished rice and white flour with corn, sweet potatoes and other grains, try to replace sweet drinks and milk tea with sugar-free ones, and drink less alcohol. Fat milk can already avoid 80% of dietary triggers. There was a male patient who replaced two bottles of skim milk a day with sugar-free soy milk without even increasing the amount of ointment. In less than a month, more than half of the cleft lip on his chin disappeared. It is much more effective than many expensive skin care products.