Treat Acne with a Low Glycemic Diet

Do you or your kids have acne problems? The majority of
adolescents and a small number of adults deal with
significant facial blemishes. I remember going through a
bought in my early 20's. It can be difficult for teens and
young adults entering the dating years if they are always
worrying about how they look. If your kids are struggling
with acne, you may be able to help them out now, while
setting them up for a healthier future at the same time.

An interesting article published recently in the American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition described improvements in
teenage acne using a low glycemic diet. I have written many
articles before on the glycemic index. Typically, I have
focused on the benefit of a low glycemic diet for weight
loss, chronic disease prevention and energy level
increases. However, this new study suggests that it is also
beneficial for acne therapy.

In the study, the investigators recruited 15 – 25 year old
boys/men with acne problems. They instructed half of them
to eat low glycemic foods and the other half continued
eating mostly as they had been. They made sure that the
change in diet did not differ from the amount of calories
they were already eating; they didn't want weight loss to
be a factor. The investigators also made sure that the
participants didn't now that they were being checked for
acne treatments – to avoid a placebo effect. Instead, they
thought it was a test for monitoring protein to
carbohydrate ratios.

After 12 weeks of dietary intervention the low glycemic
diet group had significant improvements in their acne
compared to before they started on the diet and compared to
the control group. This is another ingenious example of how
to use lifestyle choices to address problems that we often
resort to drug treatments for.

The cause of acne is still mostly unknown. Way back in the
1930's doctors believed that it had something to do with
blood sugar, but this fell out of favor with some research
in the late 1960's. More recently, that later work has been
called into question and the concept that acne has
something to do with carbohydrate metabolism and blood
sugar has gained ground again. This new study suggests that
the blood sugar metabolism theory may have some validity.

To revisit, low glycemic foods are those that don't spike
your blood sugar. They consist of proteins and complex
carbohydrates, typically higher in fiber, that burn slowly
and give you sustained energy release. We don't completely
understand the reason why these foods would be good for
acne treatment, but it seems to have something to do with
insulin levels.

High glycemic diets spike insulin levels by spiking blood
sugar. Insulin, in turn, affects a whole bunch of other
hormones that are especially raging in teenagers and young
adults and this appears to stimulate acne.

You don't need to understand all the nuts and bolts of the
biology to get the benefit. The great thing is that this
new data will arm you with some reasons to convince your
teens to adopt a healthy low glycemic diet. They will
probably care much more about eating foods that will help
clean up their face now, than they will about preventing
heart disease and diabetes in their forties and fifties.
But paying attention to what they eat will help them now
and later.

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