Acne and Diet

   When we talk about skin care problems, acne is probably one of the most popular topics which people worry about. In this article, the debate between diet and acne is introduced, and I hope this can help you to improve and know more about your skin. : )

    The major controversy which I want to discuss is whether diet causes acne or not. By giving data which are based on experiences, some people argue that there are certain food can induce acne. One of these researches is done by the Harvard School of Public Health which believes that when we consume milk, we are actually consuming additional exogenous hormones in our body that causes acne (Danby, 2005, p. 360). The Nurses Health Study II also evaluates 47,355 women by using questionnaires and finds out that there is a positive correlation between milk and acne (Adebamowo et.al., 2005, p. 207-214). Another study which is done in Australia also shows a similar result by dividing 50 young men between the ages of 15 to 25 into two groups: one group with food such as lean meat, fruits and vegetables and the other with typical western diet (Shrieves, 2007, para.4). Some people also argue their opinions by saying people who have not yet been exposed to a western diet are less likely to have acne (Shrieves, 2007, para.1). All of these experiences and data show us the potential link between diet and acne. However, there are also some researches and experiences which go against the correlation between acne and diet.

    Without doing any research, most people may probably against the previous statement by saying they know people who have healthy diet and drink lots of water but still have the problem of acne. There is a research which shows that junk food such as chocolate does not cause acne, and instead, the antioxidant inside of the chocolate can help to protect our skin from getting older (Acne Resource Center, n.d., para. 5). More importantly, chocolate also helps us to reduce stress which is one of the big causes of acne (Acne Resource Center, n.d., para. 5). People who argue against the milk experience which I mention previously state their argument by explaining that the collection data is not reliable since it is hard for people to recall what they eat years ago or even days ago (American Academy of Dermatology, 2009, para. 6).

    So which side of the arguments we should believe? From my perspective, diet can actually affect skin. The reason why I believe that is because most of the researches which also believe in the link between diet and acne (like the milk research and the Australian experiment I mention) are quite reliable and reasonable. They are reliable because they are all came from creditable researchers who have high education degree on the health perspective area and are all obtained after 2004. They are also reasonable because it gives biological explanation. For instance, the milk experiment explains that the endogenous hormones and IGF-1 in the milk can cause acne (Damby, 2005, p.360-361). They are also reasonable because some of those opinions fit my personal experience, which every time when I eat lots of junk food or western food, my face grow acne. For the counter side which argues that they have seen people who grow acne with healthy diet and lots of water, I explain that diet is not the only factor which causes acne. Other factors such as stress can also cause acne, and I learn this information from my health science class.

    Even though there is a potential link between diet and skin, I don’t think we should go too extreme. By saying too extreme, I mean it is not a good idea to stop drinking milk or eating potato chips forever. Nevertheless, we can eat less junk food and drink less milk according to how our body and skin response to those food.

References

Adebamowo CA, Spiegelman D, Danby FW, Frazier AL, Willett WC, Holmes MD. (2005, February). High school dietary dairy intake and teenage acne. AcneHelp, 207-214. Retrieved from: http://www.acnehelp.org.uk/papers/Article1.pdf

Acne Resource Center. (n.d.). The Chocolate and Acne Myth. The Acne Resource Center Online. Retrieved from: http://www.acne-resource.org/acne-articles/chocolate-myth.html

American Academy of Dermatology. (2009, January). Food Does Not Cause Acne. AcneNet. Retrieved from: http://www.skincarephysicians.com/acnenet/acne_and_diet.html

Danby, F, William. (2005, February). Acne and milk, the diet myth, and beyond. Acne Help, 361-360. Retrieved from: http://www.acnehelp.org.uk/papers/Commentary.pdf

Shrieves, Linda. (2007, November). Study Suggests diet affects acne. The Seattle Times. Retrieved from: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2004009923_webdietacne13.html

What Kind of Sources We Should Believe?

    In this article, I am going to provide some examples to show you which kind of references we should trust and which we should not trust when we do our research on diet and skin. I hope these examples can give you some ideas on how to judge a piece of information about health and skin.   

    The article which I am going to criticize is called “5 Delicious Tips for Acne-Free, Beautiful Skin” which writes about food that helps to prevent acne and promote beautiful skin. (Puusa, n.d). There are five specific things which show the article lacks credibility, and let us look at them one by one.

Author                

     

    The identity of the author makes me doubt the credibility of the article. According to Bazz.com, the writer of this article, Seppo Puusa, is a guy who “helps companies to reach international markets” and does “online-business by helping people to cure their acne and improve their overall health” (n.d). It does not show if he has any expert knowledge on diet and skin care. Instead, it shows the potential purpose of this article is not to share health information but to promote “international markets” by using the internet. In fact, at the bottom of this article, Puusa suggests that “if you have moderate to severe acne or other difficult skin problems simple dietary treatment may not be enough. Persistent or severe skin problems usually require more complete treatment” with a link on his free e-book (Pussa, n.d., para. 20). I try to enter the link and find out the following things which make me surprise!!

When I enter the link which is circled on the above screen shot, it asks me to register an account and confirm the account through my e-mail… (He won’t do that if his only purpose is to share good health information to the others!!)

 

When I enter to the free e-book, I find out that what the “book” writes about is just some basic knowledge plus some other advertisements on books which are NOT FREE, and a convenience online banking link is also provided at the bottom of the page which helps you to order his book.

.

                    

Now, do you still think his only purpose is to share good information with you? 
If not, please see the following! 


Dates

    The written date is not told in this article. It is not a good idea to trust a source which does not show the written date because our environment as well as the food situation changes overtime. Diet information which is written around the period we read is usually better since it matches our current situation and problems that we encounter. In some cases, newer information is also better than the older one because it experiences a longer period of time than the older one.

Lack of Good Evidence

    Many evidences which Puusa provides are questionable. For example, he tries to show that raw food is always good for our skin by using a quote from a supermodel Carol Alt which tells us that the beauty secret is to eat raw food. (Puusa, n.d., para. 3). However, thing which may work for a supermodel does not mean it works for the others. The evidence is not scientific and clear. More importantly, the fact that supermodels usually look younger are based on many other factors such as they do more exercise and pay more attention on their skincare than the others since these are supposed to be parts of their job!

    Although cooking food can destroy some nutrients, but we should still cook food since it helps to destroy some microorganisms which are harmful to our body. Some raw food followers believe that eating raw food can actually cure cancer, but in fact, raw food adherents such as Aveline Kushi (2006, para. 2) and Apple CEO Steve Jobs is either die of cancer or is diagnosed with cancer, according to a health and science journalist Wanjek who receives his master degree from the Harvard School of Public Health. (2006, para. 12).

Oversimplification and Lack of Evidences

    
    One of the other "delicious tips" Puusa gives us is yogurt. He points out that “yogurt is the only dairy product that is good for your skin” (n.d., para. 13). without giving any evidence telling us why we should not eat other dairy products. In facts, many other dairy products such as cheese and milk also contain rich nutrients like vitamins and proteins which are beneficial to our skin. Nutrition Australia once demonstrates that “science does not support link between acne and dairy food” and “low-fat dairy foods will ensure your skin gets all nutrients it needs” (2009), which means we should still have some variety on choosing dairy food but not only yogurts.

Oversimplification

    
    Puusa also tells us that we should not eat proteins and carbohydrates together since it affects our digest system as well as our skin. (n.d., para. 9). However, as far as I know, lots of food beside vegetables and fruit such as many beans and grains are contained with both proteins and carbohydrates, and these grains and beans are the basic food we should have everyday!

    




    Doing research from the internet is perhaps the easiest, cheapest and the most convenience way for us to search information about diet and healthy skin. Nevertheless, the information we get from the internet can be written by anyone, which means the credibility of the information should be different and we should critically analyze those messages before we take them into action!!

References

Buzzle.com. (n.d.). Seppo Pussa. http://www.buzzle.com/authors.asp?author=3562

Nutrition Australia. (2009, April). Dairy Food Myth. Retrieved from: 

    http://www.nutritionaustralia.org/national/resource/dairy-food-myths

Pussa, Seppo. (n.d.).

    5 Delicious Tips For Acne-Free, Beautiful Free. Retrieved from: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/tips-    

    acne-free-beautiful-skin.html

Wanjeck, Christopher. (2006, July 4). The Raw Food Diet: A Raw Deal. Retrieved from: 

    http://www.livescience.com/889-raw-food-diet-raw-deal.html.