How Allergies, Sensitivities, and Diet Fuel Acne Breakouts - Ask a Nutritionist

Transcript:

MELANIE: Hello and welcome to our Dishing Up Nutrition “Ask a Nutritionist” series. Today we're talking about acne; more specifically, how your diet might contribute to acne and other skin issues. We as nutritionists focus on healing the skin from the inside out. So good news, you can save your money from all the expensive creams and topical treatments.

Diet is more impactful to skin health than any other expensive beauty product. There are certain foods and certain food groups that can be particularly harmful to the skin. And on the flip side, certain foods that are particularly supportive to healthy skin. Maybe you've even seen this with your own skin.

In fact, we had our listener write in saying, “Wheat products cause me to have face breakouts and clogged ears. Same thing with milk. Though I can eat cheese, butter, and cottage cheese, but no yogurt. It's maddening.” This listener has made the connection between her skin breakouts and her diet. And our skin is the largest organ, after all.

So if our gut is unhappy, it can send us signals through the inflammation of our skin. Have you ever eaten a certain food and noticed how your skin reacts? Maybe you indulge in some sugar and then notice a pimple pop up within a few hours. Oh gosh, it's so aggravating. Or in more severe instances, maybe you notice a rash or hives form from certain foods.

Or if you have an autoimmune condition like rosacea, you notice that certain foods can cause flare ups. We can use our skin as a helpful tool to know the health of what's going on on the inside where we can't see. Unfortunately, many who struggle with chronic acne, especially teens, are prescribed medications like Accutane or put on antibiotics.

These medications, they do work for clearing up acne, but unfortunately they wreak havoc on the skin on your digestive health, negatively affecting your overall health with sometimes long-term consequences. We want to avoid using acne medications as much as we can in order to keep our gut healthy.

Which foods can cause acne?

So let's get into what foods cause acne. Like I mentioned earlier, when you're looking at skin conditions like acne, whether it be just a little pimple here or there, or perhaps you've dealt with chronic serious cystic acne, and it's a reflection of inflammation in the gut. So as nutritionists, of course, we're looking at foods and which foods cause inflammation.

Food #1 to consider removing: dairy

And when I'm working with someone who's battling acne, one of the first foods I remove is dairy. And dairy is one of the most common triggers for skin inflammation. Like the submission from the listener that I just read, she noticed that certain dairy products cause her breakout, but she can handle other dairy.

She said she could handle cheese and butter and cottage cheese, but not yogurt. What that says to me is that she has a sensitivity to lactose. The more dense, higher fat foods like butter and hard cheese or even heavy cream are lower in lactose. So dairy products with higher milk content like yogurts and ice cream and of course regular drinking milk are high in lactose.

Plus conventional dairy contains hormones that are given to dairy cows which comes out in their milk. So, intaking these hormones from cow's milk can further exacerbate acne and skin issues. I always recommend that if you eat dairy products, choose organic. This is where it is worth a little extra money to buy organic to avoid the additives that are found in conventional dairy.

So, if someone's goal is to improve their skin and get rid of their acne, I recommend doing a trial of 100 percent dairy free for several weeks to see if it helps. It takes a little while to get that inflammation down. Even if down the road they're able to tolerate low lactose dairy foods, removing dairy 100 percent is really the best way to start to see how much removing that dairy can help.

Most of the time, you will see some improvement. And there's no downside to taking dairy out of your diet, besides maybe missing some of your favorite foods, like, of course, cheese. But, it should be manageable for a trial of a few weeks.

If you think about it, most real food is naturally dairy free. So, you shouldn't feel too deprived and there's plenty of food that you can eat. Don't worry about missing out on calcium from not eating dairy. You can get plenty of natural calcium from green vegetables like broccoli and spinach and nuts and seeds.

Specifically almonds and sesame seeds are really high in calcium. If you're not getting enough green vegetables in your diet I recommend supplementing with a good calcium supplement like our Activated Calcium. And we have several calcium supplement options on our supplement site, nutrikey.net.

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How can gluten &/or dairy cause clogged ears/inflammation?

So, I want to make a quick side note regarding the listener's original question about getting clogged ears when she eats gluten and dairy. Let's talk about why this happens. Food sensitivities can lead to inflammation in the sinuses and the eustachian tubes, resulting in plugged ears.

Inflammation and mucus production, commonly from dairy, might worsen this symptom. So, plugged or itchy inner ears equals a broader systemic inflammation from food triggers. So, if this is something you are experiencing, why not remove dairy from your diet a hundred percent and just see if your symptoms improve.

Ultra processed foods cause inflammation

Just think of it as a little experiment. Speaking of that, let's talk about more foods that can commonly cause inflammation. The typical American ultra processed diet of soda, bagels, cereal, crackers, French fries, pasta, food in a box, can set up anyone for skin problems. All of these foods are loaded with high processed carbs and sugar.

Not to mention that fried foods are cooked in damaged, refined oils that clog up pores and cause breakouts from the inside out. Eating high amounts of carbohydrate really leads to high blood sugar levels, which causes the body to secrete the hormone, insulin. Higher insulin levels cause inflammation, which can affect skin and lead to clogged and irritated pores from increased sebum production.

Other considerations for common food sensitivities

You may find that you have sensitivities to maybe some other common food triggers like soy or certain nuts or citrus foods that cause your skin to react. When you're working on healing the skin, the first go to's I always recommend are remove dairy and usually gluten too.

Keep a food journal to track dietary correlations with body reactions

But I still recommend keeping a food journal to see if there are other dietary correlations. No one loves a food journal, but it's just a short time and you get to see how your body reacts to certain foods.

And this is especially helpful during the reintroduction phase to see if there are any skin flare ups or common symptoms like inflamed sinuses, stuffy nose, post nasal drip. I always will have a client take a before picture on their phone and then an after picture on their phone to see how these foods and which areas of the skin are affected. Then I ask them to take a photo at least once a week of the affected area to notice any changes.

Another correlation to acne: hormones

Another correlation to acne is of course hormones. If you are a woman of menstruating age, and notice that breakouts happen around that time of the month, especially along the jawline, it's most likely hormonal. One essential, but often overlooked key to hormone balance is regular bowel movements.

We store extra estrogen in our stool waiting to be eliminated, and these estrogens actually absorb back into our bloodstream if they're not eliminated through regular bowel movements. The excess estrogens can present themselves as acne as they try to excrete themselves through the skin.

We want to aim for one to two bowel movements every day to eliminate excess estrogens and other toxins. So if you struggle with constipation, a simple solution is to try adding in two to four capsules of our Mixed Magnesium supplement from Nutrikey before bed.

And this should help produce a bowel movement the next morning. And then removing gluten and dairy can also be a huge help in improving constipation. And I find that the foods that are heavier in gluten and dairy tend to be more constipating overall and also processed. If I'm thinking like pizza and pastas.

So, if you're struggling with chronic constipation, I would suggest making an appointment with one of our nutritionists because constipation, yes, it's uncomfortable, it isn't normal, and it can be harmful to your health if it's untreated. So, again, if you're not having a complete bowel movement at least every day, one a day, or maybe two, you're constipated.

And we need to be eliminating those toxins and excess hormones through healthy daily bowel movements. I find that skin can often improve just by getting my clients to go to the bathroom every day. And if constipation is something that they were struggling with, not only are they relieved, but we start seeing some change in that skin health.

Nutrient deficiencies related to acne (#1: zinc)

Let's talk about nutrient deficiencies related to acne. Zinc deficiency can cause acne. Another way to know if you are low in zinc is if you have white spots on your fingernails or you catch everything that's coming around like a cold or a flu bug. Supplementing with zinc can be helpful for increasing zinc in your diet through grass fed red meats and shellfish, some nuts and seeds, these are naturally high in zinc.

#2: vitamin A

Vitamin A is another essential nutrient for skin health, and you can get vitamin A through diet through orange and green vegetables like squash, carrots, pumpkin, leafy greens, peppers, and certain animal foods are high in vitamin A, like liver or cod liver oil, fatty fish, or really good high quality eggs with a dark yellow or orange yolk.

#3: omega-3

And essential fats, like omega-3, they're hydrating and anti-inflammatory and overall very beneficial to the skin. Because our standard diet is so lacking in omega-3s, I like to recommend supplementing for most people. But, you can also find omega-3s in foods like fatty fish, and a variety of nuts and seeds, and even grass fed beef is high in omega-3s.

Eat real food in balance for proper nutrient support for skin

Don't worry about memorizing all the foods and the nutrients; that's my job. Like I just mentioned, these are all some real foods that we always recommend: real animal proteins, real vegetable carbohydrates, especially the dark, colorful ones, and real natural fats. If you just focus on including a balance of real foods at every meal, you'll be getting the nutrients you need for good skin.

Good gut health = good skin health

Because good gut health equals good skin health, I will have someone who's working on their skin health take a daily probiotic, specifically from the lactobacillus strain, or either Lactobacillus Acidophilus or a blend like our Women's Biotic Balance that has the same strain along with other strains.

Summary

So let's sum things up. For optimal skin health, try these dietary suggestions. Eliminate dairy. Eliminate gluten. Eliminate general ultra processed foods that are high in sugar from your diet that come in a bag or a box. Focus on anti-inflammatory diet rich, colorful fruits, vegetables, quality proteins, and healthy fats.

And you'll notice these foods don't typically come through a window. So eliminate that fast food habit. And if the topic of how diet relates to your skin health is of interest, we just scratched the surface today. Please learn more by visiting our website at weightandwellness.com for free articles and more podcast episodes, as well as some delicious recipes.

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As always, for the best help to meet our individual needs, we recommend you meet with one of our expert dietitians at Nutritional Weight & Wellness. To learn more about our counseling services, visit www.weightandwellness.com or call us at 651-699-3438.

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