TikTok user reveals which CeraVe products cleared her acne
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Acne can totally ruin your confidence and prevent you from living your life to the fullest. Sometimes no matter what skincare you use, your skin will continue being spotty. It’s easy to feel hopeless when you have acne, but changing up your diet could be the answer to clear skin. Express.co.uk chatted to Award-Winning Dietitian, Harriet Smith and the team at Botanycl to find out the three foods to avoid for clear skin.
Acne is a common skin condition that affects both teenagers and many adults.
It has a big impact on self-confidence, body image and quality of life, but it’s very difficult to manage and get rid of.
Dietitian Harriet Smith admits that whilst acne is mainly caused by hormonal changes and genetics, making small changes to our diet and lifestyle can benefit skin health.
This means that what you eat can impact how severe your acne is, and there are certain foods that could be triggering flare-ups while others could improve them.
According to Harriet, if you want to reduce or eliminate acne, you should try following a Mediterranean-style diet.
The Dietitian said: “A Mediterranean-style diet contains fruits and vegetables, legumes, whole grains, heart-healthy fats such as olive oil, nuts and seeds and lean protein reduces your risk of acne.”
Make sure you’re getting enough vitamin A (dairy products, eggs, liver, oily fish, and yellow, red, and leafy green vegetables) because vitamin A helps your body to produce new skin cells, which prevents dead skin from clogging pores.
Vitamin C is an antioxidant found in fruits and vegetables like oranges, strawberries, peppers, broccoli, and potatoes, and studies have shown that its antioxidant properties can help protect the skin from UV light damage.
Vitamin C also plays a crucial role in maintaining healthy skin by helping the body produce collagen.
Try Botanycl’s Natural Vitamin C (£17.95) or the brand’s SkinClear Elixir (£24.95) to get everything you need in one supplement.
The 3 foods to avoid for clear skin
Dairy
There’s ongoing debate as to whether dairy is linked to acne, with some studies showing a possible link and others not finding any relationship between the two.
It’s worth trying to cut out milk, cheese and other products that contain dairy, like chocolate, cakes and biscuits, if your acne is so bad it’s impacting your life.
Harriet said: “If you choose to avoid dairy, a well-planned dairy-free diet which is healthy and balanced can provide you with all the nutrients you need.
“However, excluding dairy and animal products means that you could miss out on certain nutrients such as calcium, vitamin B12 and iodine.
“These will need to be replaced elsewhere in your diet, either through foods or a nutritional supplement.”
Sugar
We all know that too much sugar is bad for our general health, but did you know sugar could be making your acne much worse?
Harriet said: “Some studies have found that eating a lot of sugary foods is a risk factor for acne, but others have found no such association.”
While cutting out sugar doesn’t work for some people it could be the answer for you, so why not give it a go?
In the UK, it’s recommended that adults should have no more than 30g of free sugars a day.
Harriet said: “This is equivalent to around seven teaspoons of sugar.
“Free sugars are those added to food and drinks by manufacturers, plus the sugars found in fruit juice, honey and syrups.”
Fat
A high-fat diet may increase your risk of developing acne, according to Harriet.
However, not all fats are ‘bad’. So you shouldn’t eliminate fat from your diet completely.
Harriet said: “It’s important to note that having some fat in your diet is an essential part of a healthy diet.
“Try to reduce your intake of foods high in saturated fats (such as red and processed meats, pastries and cakes), and replace these with heart-healthy unsaturated fats (such as olive oil, oily fish, nuts and avocado).”
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