Nearly 85 percent of people have acne at some point in their lives, making acne the most common skin disorder in the US. While acne typically begins during puberty, it’s not restricted to adolescents and may impact any age group – even into your 50s and beyond.
While not physically dangerous, acne can take a considerable psychological toll. Some sufferers become so self-conscious and embarrassed that their professional and personal lives suffer, leading to increasing feelings of alienation, depression, and social withdrawal.
Many mistakenly believe acne is mostly an aesthetic problem, but it is actually a sign of deeper imbalance in your system, often in your gut. Most physicians miss this connection entirely, instead prescribing acne drugs and other topical treatments.
Americans spend more than $2.2 billion every year on acne treatments, including prescription and over-the-counter products, but many will turn out to be useless if you ignore the foundational cause of most acne – improper diet.
Desperate to Clear Your Skin? Stop Eating Gluten and Grains
Full-blown celiac disease, which is an extreme form of gluten sensitivity causing both the adaptive and innate immune system to attack your small intestine, affects an estimated 1.8 percent of people in Western cultures. But non-celiac gluten sensitivity may actually affect as many as 30 to 40 percent of the population, and according to Dr. Alessio Fasano at Massachusetts General Hospital, virtually all of us are affected to some degree.
This is because we all create a substance called zonulin in the intestine in response to gluten. Glutinous proteins, found in wheat, barley, and rye, known as prolamines can make your gut more permeable, which allows partially digested proteins to get into your bloodstream that would otherwise have been excluded, any of which can sensitize your immune system and promote inflammation, which can contribute to worsening acne.
Once gluten sensitizes your gut, it then becomes more permeable and all manner of gut bacterial components and previously excluded dietary proteins—including casein and other dairy proteins—have direct access to your bloodstream, thereby further challenging your immune system.
If you have acne, you should try eliminating gluten and other lectin-containing foods, although I actually recommend that everyone following my beginner nutrition plan eliminate all gluten from their diets.
Among the most important to avoid are those grains that contain the sticky, hard to digest prolamine proteins, such as wheat, barley, rye, and yes, even oats, rice, and corn. However, I don’t recommend you stop there…
Avoid All Grains (and Sugar) If You Have Acne
While glutinous grains should certainly be eliminated if you struggle with acne, I recommend you avoid all manner of refined carbohydrates as well. Acne is much less of a problem in non-Westernized societies, where refined carbohydrates and sugar are consumed in much lower amounts. Diets high in sugar and refined carbohydrates are one of the primary causes of acne.
When you eat grain carbohydrates and sugar/fructose, it causes a surge of insulin and insulin-like growth factor called IGF-1 in your body. This can lead to an excess of male hormones, like testosterone, which cause your pores to secrete sebum, a greasy substance that attracts acne-promoting bacteria. Additionally, IGF-1 causes skin cells known as keratinocytes to multiply, a process that is also associated with acne.
Additionally, these very same foods -- refined carbs, such as fructose, sugar, and grains -- will also increase inflammation in your body, which may trigger acne, and at the same time they will also wreak havoc on the makeup of your intestinal bacteria, as mentioned above.
In fact, in 2007 a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutritionfound that young men (ages 15 to 25) with acne problems who were placed on low-glycemic diets for 12 weeks showed significant improvements in acne and insulin sensitivity. Research published last year also found that a high-glycemic diet and frequent dairy consumption are linked to acne.
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