About 80% of teenagers have acne. A lot of adults do too. I'm sure there's a genetic component to acne, but I think you are what you eat. Teenagers tend to eat processed, sugary foods and drink sodas or energy drinks. If you cut all that stuff out of the diet, your skin will improve, generally. (Good hygiene is a piece of the picture, too.) Throw in some ground flaxseed and it might even glow.
I have two teenagers who don't really eat much processed foods at all, and almost never drink anything besides water, milk, and fruit juice with breakfast. Other than the occasional pimple or breakout caused by stress, they have clear skin. My unofficial observation of their peers is that the more processed foods they eat, the worse their skin. We'll see if this holds true with DS12, who is my junk food junkie when I'm not watching.
I've come to this conclusion slowly, after overhauling the food in our house. My own skin improved once I started eating mostly unprocessed foods. But, it's hard to go cold-turkey and ban all processed foods from the typical Western diet. What about condiments? I'm not about to make my own ketchup, that's for sure.
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You know, I never knew for sure if it was age or changing my diet that made me stop getting acne problems late in my 30s. I don't eat a LOT of processed foods; one of the big recent changes has been cutting out anything "fried" (other than maybe stuff sauteed in a little olive oil).
ReplyDeleteI also started taking a B complex for other reasons and that may have done something. Or maybe switching to the pricey organic milk. (I know it says there's "no difference" between the rBST treated milk and the non, but my sister in law is a chemist and SHE won't drink rBST milk...)
I still eat more sugar than is really ideal but at least it comes with other 'good' stuff like fruit or dark chocolate.