Acne Breakouts - Foods That Cause Acne Breakouts

Introduction

Are you a teenager and being told your acne is a result of your food choices? You are told that an acne diet consists of chocolate, sweets and greasy foods. You should ask for the proof before you swallow that nonsense.

The truth is, none of these foods will cause you to develop acne.

So what foods will cause you acne?

Foods That Cause Acne

Let us be clear at the start, it has not been found that any foods can directly cause you to develop acne. But there are some foods that can affect your hormone levels that will result in acne.

This hormone imbalance causes the body to secret more sebum (oil) through the pores in the skin. This oil will cause your dead skin to clump together clogging your pores resulting in acne.

So what foods can cause you to develop a hormonal imbalance?

Dairy Products - In several studies performed in the early twenty-first century, it was found that people, who drank several glasses of milk per day, had a higher instance of acne than those who drank no milk at all. It was found that consumption of 2 or more glasses of milk per day significantly increased the likely hood of developing acne during your puberty years.

Researchers believe that the hormones found in milk will stimulate your insulin. This stimulation will increase the production of the hormone testosterone and decrease the production of sex hormone-binding globulin, causing a hormone imbalance, resulting in acne.

Low-glycemic-index Foods - A couple of studies performed on cultures that ate a diet with a low-glycemic-index, were found to have little or no acne. An additional study on a controlled group showed a decrease in acne occurrences for the group that ate a diet with a low-glycemic-index.

So what is a diet rich in low-glycemic-index foods? This diet consists of lots of green leafy vegetables, vegetables, unsaturated fats, cold-water fish and fruits, in other words, a diet with foods in their natural state.

Those foods that are considered to have a high-glycemic-index are found in processed foods, lunchmeats, saturated fats and other foods that are refined from their natural state.

What researchers have found is that if your diet consists mainly of high-glycemic-index foods, your hormones become unbalanced creating acne. Plus this diet creates more inflammation in your body that may cause the immune system to overreact and attack healthy tissue. This means that if you develop acne, your immune system will over respond and make your acne appear worse than it really should be.

A diet with a low-glycemic-index helps keep your hormones at a normal level plus you have much less inflammation.

Jimmy C has been studying skin care for many years because of his skin problems in his youth and he is the Editor in Chief of a number of skin care web sites. Being a victim of acne in his younger days, he has researched this subject to help people prevent and stop acne. He has also studied many aspects of caring for the bodies skin and keeping it youthful and free of irritants.

For more information on caring for acne or other facial blemishes and keeping your youthful appearance go to his web sites at http://www.skinguidelines.com/p/causes-and-cures-for-acne.html or http://www.squidoo.com/cause-and-cures-of-acne.

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Causes of Acne - Does Eating Chocolate Cause Acne?

Introduction

Bet your mother or father told you that when you enter your teen years you will have to cut down or completely eliminate your consumption of chocolate. Why? Because you will develop a severe case of acne and subsequently have acne scars for the rest of your life.

Well let's explore that and see what causes acne to develop and why chocolate does not contribute to the development of acne.

How Acne Develops

Close to 50 million people in the United States will develop acne this year. Most of those who will suffer from this embarrassing condition will be teenagers going through puberty.

The direct cause of acne is not known, but it is believed to be triggered by a hormone imbalance in the human body. This is exactly what teenagers are undergoing when they undergo puberty, a significant hormone imbalance.

This is further supported by the fact that women who take certain birth control pills or are undergoing stress, also have a hormone imbalance and have a tendency to develop an acne breakout.

When you get this hormone imbalance, the body's skin will start to excrete sebum (oil) in larger amounts than normal. This excess oil will allow dead skin on the surface of the skin to clump together.

When this clumping occurs, it can block the pores allowing for an ideal environment for bacteria to grow. As the bacteria grows, the immune system responds by attacking the growing bacteria, causing inflammation, thus acne.

Chocolate And Acne

So when you consume chocolate it will need to either upset your hormones in your body or cause your body to secrete more body oils than normal. But so far research has shown that eating chocolate will not cause you to make more sebum or upset your hormones.

So there is no connection between acne and chocolate.

What Does Chocolate Do To The Body

There are a couple of negative aspects for consuming chocolate. It can make you fat if you consume too much and can cause you to have a sugar spike in your blood.

But if you consume chocolate in small doses, such as one square of dark chocolate a day, you can realize the following benefits:

Chocolate has been found to be beneficial to the brain.It is also beneficial to your body because it relieves hypertension by expanding or dilating your blood vessels.It also contains magnesium which helps convert your food to energy.

Conclusion

Acne is believed to be caused by a hormone imbalance in the body causing the body to secrete more sebum than normal. Chocolate has been found not to cause a hormone imbalance nor does it cause the body to secrete more sebum than normal.

Based on this, chocolate and acne are not connected, but dark chocolate, taken in moderation, can be beneficial to the body in general.

Jimmy C has been studying skin care for many years because of his skin problems in his youth and he is the Editor in Chief of a number of skin care web sites. Being a victim of acne in his younger days, he has researched this subject to help people prevent and stop acne. He has also studied many aspects of caring for the bodies skin and keeping it youthful and free of irritants.

For more information on caring for acne or other facial blemishes and keeping your youthful appearance go to his web sites at http://www.skinguidelines.com/p/causes-and-cures-for-acne.html or http://www.squidoo.com/cause-and-cures-of-acne.

View the original article here

Causes of Acne - Does Eating Greasy Foods Or Chocolate Cause Acne?

Introduction

Since your pre-teen days, your parents have warned you that eating greasy foods and especially chocolate, will cause you to develop acne. Can you imagine not being to eat your favorite foods, such as French fries or chocolate?

Not me! But let me give you some scientific findings. Scientist have not found one shred of evidence that links greasy foods and especially chocolate, to the development of acne.

Causes Of Acne

What research has found is that the cause of acne is because of the excess secretion of sebum or oil from your skin. This production of excess amounts of sebum is linked to the imbalance of hormones in your body that occurs during puberty years, taking medicines or if you are under stress, to name a few causes.

This sebum will cause the dead skin to clump on your skins pores trapping bacteria in the pores. When this happens, the bacterium begins to grow triggering a response from your immune system.

The response of your immune system is to attack the bacteria causing inflammation, acne, pimples, blackheads and whiteheads.

Greasy Foods

Since these foods have been proven to not cause acne, it is not an open season to go and eat all the greasy foods you want. Greasy foods, especially those cooked with saturated or trans fats are bad for your health. Much worse than developing acne.

Health conditions that can develop from you eating too much of this greasy foods are clogged arteries, high blood pressure and heart disease.

If you must have foods cooked in grease, cook your foods with unsaturated fats and eat foods or take supplements, with Essential Fatty Acids (Fish Oil). This will provide the proper fats to build fluid cell walls allowing for the easy absorption of nutrients and discharge of wastes.

Chocolate

Now chocolate on the other hand is better for you than greasy foods. Chocolate, especially dark chocolate, contain vitamins D, E and antioxidants. All three of these are excellent for you skin and body.

It is recommended that you eat a maximum of six grams (one square) of dark chocolate, to get the full benefits from it.

Conclusion

Those threats your parents told you about greasy foods and chocolate causing acne, have no bases in fact. In fact, research has shown no connection to development of acne and eating chocolate and greasy foods.

What has been found is excess sebum, caused by an imbalance in your hormones, will cause you to develop acne. This imbalance can be caused by a number of reasons with the top two being puberty and stress.

Jimmy C has been studying skin care for many years because of his skin problems in his youth and he is the Editor in Chief of a number of skin care web sites. He has studied many aspects of caring for the bodies skin and keeping it youthful and free of irritants. He has helped many people keep their youthful appearance and operates the web site http://www.skinguidelines.com/ which discusses many aspects of caring for the skin.

View the original article here