A lot of you are writing me telling me how frustrating it is to see your friends with perfectly clear skin eat whatever they want, and never have a single breakout. They eat junk food and have perfect skin. Why?
You, on the other hand get terrible breakouts whenever you eat your breakout-triggering foods. Perhaps you have a long list of foods you have to stay away from just to keep your skin semi-normal. You can’t eat whatever you want, and in fact you know you’ve got to be on a special diet for clear skin.
I know how frustrating that is. I also know that many times it’s the treat foods you love the most that’s usually causing the most problems (for me it’s ice cream, or any “creamy” food for that matter).
Acne is a health condition
The hard truth is you have a skin condition, and 9 out of 10 times it’s a result of something not working properly in your body.
It’s not about finding the perfect pill or skin care product to vanish your breakouts. You need to get at the root of the problem, and that means taking care of your health – on all levels.
For example, let’s say you were to wake-up with a rash covering your neck and part of your face. You would probably take inventory of what you ate over the last 24 hours, what makeup or skin care products you used, what detergent you’re using on your sheets, towels and clothing, and anything else that might be causing the rash. If it’s a chronic rash, you’ll be even more diligent trying to figure out what the cause is.
You would think you would do the same sort of “investigation” if you were to wake up with a fresh pimple on your face, or waking up every day with even more breakouts.
But for some reason most acne-suffers are too busy spending their time, money, and efforts searching for a quick fix. They completely glaze over the fact that acne is an actual health condition and there’s something that causing or triggering it.
If you have acne or constant breakouts, this means something in your body isn’t functioning as best as it should, and you’re getting breakouts because of it.
It’s not because you haven’t found the perfect pill or skin care product yet. You have a health condition, and until you heal your body, it’s not going to go away.
So back to your question why your friends can eat junk food and have perfect skin, and you can’t?
You have a skin condition, they don’t!
There’s always going to be people who can eat all the junk they want and never get breakouts. It’s because their body can deal with the junk and their less-than-healthy lifestyle (for now). They don’t have a skin condition/health condition like you do.
If you’re getting breakouts and acne, your body probably can’t handle junk food (and there might even be some health foods that don’t agree with your body either). You have a health condition, and you need to be taking care of your body to get it back to balance, so it can function at it’s best (and therefore get rid of the acne).
Your body needs to get healthy to get rid of acne
Eating a healthy diet to get rid of acne is the first, MOST IMPORTANT step in getting rid of acne. Why? Because when you eat nutritious food, and foods that your body needs; your body is getting the fuel and nutrition to be able to take care of itself, heal, and function at it’s best. You’re not consuming foods that are interfering with your body’s ability to function optimally.
For example, if you’re sick, you need to take extra care of yourself to get healthy again, right? You’re going to eat healthy food, drink a lot of fluids, get good rest, minimize stress, etc? Well, that’s exactly how your going to get rid of acne and breakouts too.
You need to see your acne as a red flag that you’re body needs to be taken care of. You’re body needs to be restored back to health.
And just as you don’t need candy bars, junk food or processed food when you’re sick; you certainly don’t need it when you have a breakout either!
I can’t tell you how many people I’ve coached who were shocked to see how their diet is directly connected to the state of their skin. Once they took the offending foods out of their diet, their skin miraculously healed.
So don’t focus on what others can and can’t do. Focus on what you are going to do, and the benefits you are going to get!
How to eat right for blemish-free skin
If you are ready to get started, there’s a number of ways to improve your diet. I suggest going at a pace that works for you. Every effort counts.
Here are a few things you can get started with (you don’t have to do them all at once, just start adding more healthy foods in, start cooking and preparing your own meals more, use quality ingredients, and decrease the unhealthy stuff):
- Eat fresh food
- Eat real, whole food (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans/legume, meats, fish, eggs, nuts/seeds, etc.)
- Eliminate fast food and processed food
- Eliminate sugar
- Take a break from dairy products to see if it helps
- Eliminate transfats, hydrogenated oils, vegetable oils
- Make homemade meals
6 Responses
Hi natasha, this is good advice but i already eat super healthy and i STILL have acne. What more can i do – i am totally confused??? Do more stubborn cases need a more radical diet change? Would some kind of juice fast/ raw food detox be beneficial do you think?
Hi Kirsten,
I can definitely understand (and relate) to your frustration!
There are many healthy foods that can cause acne and breakouts (it’s not only junk foods). I’ll definitely be going over all of that in upcoming articles. I do recommend keeping a food journal and tracking your breakouts, because sometimes when it’s all written out, you can start to see pattens and connections with certain foods you’re eating.
The benefit of doing a juice fast or raw food diet is that you’re eliminating a lot of foods all at one time, and if you start to see improvements in your skin while doing the cleanse, then you’ll know for sure the acne is being caused by something in your regular diet.
So yes, if you are thinking about experimenting with a cleanse or juice fast to see if it can help your skin, I would definitely agree to do it!
Keep me posted!
Thanks for the advice Natasha. I definitely notice alot of ‘healthy’ foods break me out – grains, fruit, too many nuts. I never used to be so sensitive to food as a teenager, seems to have just developed as i’ve gotten older. I’m wondering if its something to do with too many toxins in my body/liver??I’m trying a sort of detox diet at the moment – mainly just eating salad and vege. I enjoy that sort of food but eating so little makes me lose weight. (I know most people would b happy with that but i am already really skinny and i don’t like it!) But i refuse to give up. I’ll let u know if i get any results. Kristen
Hi Kristen,
Ya, unfortunately a lot of healthy foods can be breakout city!
It sounds to me that there’s two things going on with you – it may be that some of the healthy foods are just too difficult to digest (like nuts and grains), and you might have a hormone/sugar issue (and that’s why your skin reacts adversely to the fruits, grains, etc.).
The good news is you don’t have to get off these foods forever. Sometimes taking an extended break from the foods allows your body to heal, get back on track, and work efficiently again. You might have to take a break from the big acne causing foods for a few months, allow your skin and body to get balanced again, and later on introduce them back into your diet to see if your body tolerates them better (which many times it does!).
I will talk more about this in upcoming blog posts. Keep me posted on how your skin responds to the changes you’re making.
Thank you for taking me back to step one. I’ve been so consumed with finding a cleanser that will cure my acne, instead of taking a step back and looking at what I’m putting in my body. Forever thankful!
Hi Kay,
Thanks for your comment. I think we all need to be reminded from time to time to get back to the basics (myself included!) 🙂