What Food Do You Need to Give Up for Clear Skin?

“Don’t eat so many chocolates!” is something I am pretty sure those of us suffering from acne have heard countless times. The “so many” part seems to imply that you are standing there in front of them with a bag full of chocolates and stuffing your face with them. It comes quite close to the other favourite advice “Wash your face more often”.

While being insulting and rude and not to mention irritating, these statements have no basis. First, they do not know if you do eat or do not eat “so many” chocolates. Second, it is none of their business. Third, there is no conclusive proof that chocolates make you break out. From my personal experience the people I know who eat a lot of chocolate have clear skin. They may have weight issues but their skin is clear. So chocolates on their own do not make a person break out.

So to answer the question, what food do you need to give up for clear skin, my answer is, whatever makes you break out. If your acne is not caused by food then you can eat whatever on earth it is that you want. 🙂 In moderation of course. My acne is caused by sugar so I have cut it out. However, my skin does not react to dairy, so I continue to keep it in my diet. The same may not apply to someone else with acne. In fact, the opposite may be true, dairy may make them break out while sugar is okay. You have no idea what food may cause you to break out until you keep track of what you eat and your breakouts.

I am a firm believer in enjoying all foods if they don’t cause you any problems. However, this does not mean that you should fill your diet with junk and processed foods, even if none of them causes your acne. A healthy diet will go a long way in keeping your skin and body healthy.

So what should you be eating?

Most of the skin care books I have read recommend eating salmon as it contains omega-3 fatty acids which are good for your skin. However, where I live I do not get salmon. Also, add this to the fact that you may not eat fish or simply not like salmon. So does this mean you are doomed to have bad skin? NO!!! Since I have never had clear skin and it is something I have always chased, I have looked at and spoken to a lot of people whose skin is flawless. I have found no particular pattern in their diet. And trust me when I say that some of their diets are absolutely terrible! Not fair, but that’s the way it is.

Look around you. People eat a variety of things. Some of these people will have acne and some will not. Acne is caused by a unique set of circumstances in your body, which is unique to you. What you need to do is find one trigger for these set of circumstances. And then avoid that trigger. If it is something in your diet, you may need to avoid it or cut it out completely for a while, so your acne can heal. You can find out what breaks you out by keeping a food journal and a skin journal. The food journal documents what you eat while the skin journal documents the state of your skin and what you put on it. Looking at both you can then figure out the food causing your acne.

Other than the food that breaks you out, you can eat your normal, local diet. Any diet, from anywhere in the world, can be easily tweaked to make it more skin-friendly. There are literally loads of fruits, vegetables, spices and herbs locally available to you that can be added to most dishes to make your everyday meals skin friendly. You do not need to overhaul your whole diet for beautiful, glowing skin.