IS IT THE FOOD CAUSING ACNE, OR IS YOUR BODY TOO INFLAMMED REACTING TO EVERYTHING?
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In most cases, the food in itself isn’t the culprit, but rather it is your body’s capability to digesting it.
Many foods that have a bad rap with acne or even other skin manifestations are things like dairy, coffee, sugar (even from fruit), chocolate, seafood, and grains. However, many of these foods are also noted as common allergens and can be tampered with their sourcing as well as processing, which begs the question, is it the actual or food or is it where it’s coming from and how it’s made?

For instance, dairy is a major food people seem to avoid for acne, but if you haven’t checked out my Dairy highlight, the main reason people react to it is because they’re simply not producing the lactase enzyme due to not consuming dairy anymore, the processing of the dairy doesn’t sit well with them (pasteurized, homogenized), one’s gut lining is damaged/there’s an infection of some sort, one might have issues with casein breakdown, or it’s what the cow is eating that is affecting YOU).

In terms of things like coffee, fruit, chocolate or other natural sweets/stimulants, it is usually related to poor blood sugar management which can be stressful on the body. Stress burns through blood sugar very quickly and if the body starts to break itself down OR open up fat cells (which can contain estrogen, toxins, glucose and free fatty acids like PUFAs) they can be released and be intoxicating.

High iodine foods aren’t common and if you feel seafood is a trigger for you, I would like to know its sourcing and investigate heavy metal toxicity instead of fearing an essential mineral.
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Gluten of wheat products on the other hand are often a problem. Gluten is a common allergen, again due to people not being able to digest it. However, most gluten is sprayed with glyphosate, so the real question is, is it the wheat or the pesticide making you break out? I’d argue it could be both because, again, most people are struggling with their metabolism in general and this pesticide is everywhere unfortunately.

That being said, things that ARE inflammatory to the system and DON’T provide any nutritional value are alcohol and industrial seed oils and isolated fish oils.
Alcohol has been shown to damage the gut lining, leaving us susceptible to pathogens and their lipopolysaccharides (LPS), as well as food particles which can stimulate an inflammatory response. LPS can also exacerbate oxidative stress, which can directly impact hormones, which is correlated to acne. Alcohol is also a known carcinogen, impairing liver detoxification.
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Seed/vegetable/fish oils are highly sensitive oils when extracted from their whole food forms, devoid of antioxidants such as vitamin E and nutrients and easily oxidize in our bodies. This can instigate inflammation and has been shown to downregulate our OWN vitamin E levels which have been shown to heighten estrogen and suppress progesterone, as well as create an inability for our cells to breakdown glucose and use it for energy.
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All this to say, most acne isn’t food related per say but gut, hormonal, nutrient or stress related!