When I was a teenager, my dermatologist gave me a long list of foods that might cause acne. It wasn’t any help at the time but later, when my acne was better, it helped me realize that drinking Diet Pepsi caused me to get acne 2 or 3 days later because “cola drinks” was on the list.
Now I learn from Tucker Max that it was probably the caffeine that did it:
I had bad acne in high school. I cut all caffeine out of my diet–cola, chocolate, etc–and about 90% of the acne went away. I got the rest with Accutane.
Very useful information. The list my dermatologist gave me was too long and too homogenous. “The acne caffeine link is well-known to dermatologists,” Tucker added. Except those who claim acne has nothing to do with diet.
I’ve found this to be the case too – but with a twist. It isn’t caffeine per se that makes me break out, it’s coffee. Weird though it seems, I can drink two or three cups of caffeinated tea a day and have no flareups at all. But a day or two spent drinking even decaf coffee, and I’ve got three or four pimples on me. Someone explained to me once that coffee has extra compounds in it that promote a kind of sweaty aggressiveness, while tea has compounds that promote ease and relaxation. I certainly find this to be the case. When I drink coffee, I’m much more dynamic, determined, and combative. I’m also prone to set out on all kinds of ambitious new initiatives, and for my energies to scatter. On tea, I’m calmer, don’t sweat so much, am wary of new initiatives, and can behave in a more organized fashion. Anyway, for me: coffee equals acne, tea doesn’t.
Although some research claim that food is not a cause of acne, some other researches show that certain food increases the inflammation in the body. I used to have a cup of coffee a day and my skin had breakout and it was drier. Now I replace coffee with tea and I have no more breakout.
The issue in my experience is not diet. The causes of acne are specific and relate to the release of sebum (oil) that clog the sebaceous glands and cause acne.
The release of these oils actually have more to do with hormones and gender than they do with diet. There’s actually emerging discussion about how gender effects acne. These discussions often contain facts about the differences in the genders and how that creates a need for a gender-specific acne treatment.
I researched the topic myself and came across this site which provided some useful info that helped me understand: https://campusacnetruth.org/html/acne_gender.html
The skin is your body’s largest detox organ, after the liver and kidneys. As a general rule, caffeinated coffee, red meat, cheese and all manner of drugs and environmental toxins that we absorb each day can overwhelm these organs and then it shows up in the skin. All makeup clogs the pores and the chemicals in skincare products can also make things worse. After years of trying to practically peel off and dry up the skin on my face with marginal improvement, I found that pure olive oil soap, lots of distilled water, and rarely wearing makeup (and with the olive oil to moisturize, no other products are needed) has cleared the adult acne that has grossed me out for years.